Large Octagonal Red and Green Plate with Birds on Interior

DATE:: 17th century
MATERIAL AND TECHNIQUE:: Porcelain
CLASSIFICATION:: Containers
DIMENSIONS:: 2 1/4 × 16 3/4 × 16 1/2 in. (5.72 × 42.55 × 41.91 cm)
DEPARTMENT:: Decorative Arts and Design
LOCATION:: Wendy and Emery Reves Collection - Dining Room, Level 3
CREDIT LINE:: Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection
OBJECT NUMBER:: 1985.R.860

General Description

This octagonal plate is one of three of the same pattern in the Reves Collection (see 1985.R.1085 and 1985.R.1086), It is a well painted continuation of the late K'ang Hsi famille verte palette of translucent green, iron-red, and purple. The ridged border derives from a European silver dish, though the octagonal shape originated with Japanese porcelain. There are two long-tailed birds in the central scene amidst impossibly large flowers, a railing, a tree, and four iron-red long-tailed birds in the seeded green border alternating with groups of iron-red peonies. Plates such as these were probably meant for display rather than use.

Adapted from

Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection (Dallas, Texas: Dallas Museum of Art, 1985), 188.
Label text, Reves Galleries, Porcelain Gallery, 2018