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I believe that this beautiful bowl is from late Ming time. Am I right? The bowl is appr. 18 cm x 6 cm

Hi Chris J, I think you are right that this bowl is from the Ming period, perhaps slightly earlier than 16th century, but it is not Chinese. It is a Thai Sawankhalok bowl.

Thank you for your information. I have't thought it is Thai because I now nothing about Thai porcelain. Now I must check it

This bowl cannot be early Thai since 16th century and earlier Thai potters did not use underglaze cobalt blue decoration, only iron brown. Rather the decor and glaze point to a later Vietnamese origin, 19th to early 20th century.

Walter

Hi Walter, you may well be right, if that is cobalt blue. From the pictures posted here, I saw faded underglaze iron black. Looking at pictures of other Sawankhalok ceramics, for example in koh antiques, the iron-black could appear as light cobalt. Perhaps it is just my computer screen. Nevertheless, this does not dismiss the probability that this bowl could also be Vietnamese. Chris J needs to do more research on his bowl.

Walter, I have already looked after Sawankhalok porcelain at Christie's and Sotheby's and IO have seen a lot of pieces with cobalt under glaze decoration dated to 16th century and earlier

I have been collecting Thai and Vietnamese pre-16th century ceramics for over 30 years. In that time I have not seen a single Thai piece with cobalt blue decoration. They say that every rule has an exception. I would love to see the exception in this case. Sometimes the underglaze iron brown on Sawankhalok pieces will have a bluish cast and be described by sellers as blue and white, but the blueish cast is from the glaze, not the decoration. Chris's bowl is more likely from the Bat Trang ceramic village on the Red River near Hanoi.

Crackle-glaze incense burner, Bat Trang, 19th century

Thank you. I highly appreciate your opinion

I think Walter is right.
This is a chinese bowl.
Seeing the decoration and the crackle,i think swatow ware 1570-1650.

Wil

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