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To help with any opinions, I have done some close-ups of the 'tiger' (the nearby box shows that the artist was not very good at perspective), the 'dragon', a rim (firing?) fault. There are some small black spots in the white porcelain body. The diameter is 25cm.

Thank you for any help.

The closer the view, the more this looks like a period piece. A top quality paint job, the whimsical tiger included. Chinese traditional artists followed a whole different canon for perspective than the one that evolved in the West. Their birds-eye view on your dish is the rule and not the exception. Here's a more down-to-earth view of the Tiger-taming Arhat and charge on a Japanese 'Rakan' (Arhat or Luohan in Japanese) vase.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thank you Bill H. Your expert comments and interest are most valued.

From your comments to my May 26 message, I looked up the Wikepedia entry that you suggested which gives further details of each of the 18 Luohans.

The artist, as well as being accomplished, seems to have had a sense of humour and crammed the 18 men into a sort of party scenario. It is interesting trying to pick out each of the Luohans (see extra attached photos,)although there may be some artistic licence. There is Long Eyebrow Lohan in the centre and 'Raised Pagoda' on his left. Is 'Calico Bag' the corpulent Buddha on the right with a face drawn on his belly? Any other obvious identities (apart from 'Taming Tiger')? What are the circular things being thrown around? Frisbees?

Thank you also Arjan for replying to my May 26 message.

I plan to give this plate to my daughter as a birthday present so an estimate of value would be useful (how much will the rim fault devalue it?).

Thank you again

David

I haven't absorbed the names of all these Luohans, though the corpulent one with the bag on the right side of the bottom image seems to be the 'Budai Heshang' (Cloth Sack Monk), considered in some branches of Buddhism to be an avatar of the Bodhisattva or Mortal Buddha Maitreya.

I would guess that the 'Frisbees' are flaming pearls of wisdom being created by the deities and in one case being used to tempt the dragon. As a rule, dragons usually are depicted competing keenly for such pearls.

I looked briefly to see if similar plates are on the market but found none. Here's a URL to an older and larger bowl with similar decoration. Your plate might fetch around US$500-750 from a Chinese bidder on eBay. The small kiln flaws on it usually are accepted as diagnostic of the period, so have no serious impact on value, as would post-production damage.

Best regards,

Bill H.

URL Title :LuohanBowl

Something seems to have dropped off the end of the URL, so I'm posting it again.
Bill H.

URL Title :LuohanBowl

Thank you again Bill H. You are a most valuable asset to this forum.

I must apologise for calling ''the flaming pearls of wisdom'' frisbees.

From the Wikepedia entry, I may have identified 2 more luohans/lohans: ''Raised Hand'' (''Easy and comfortable, yawning and stretching''),the top right yawning man in the first image dated 29/05/12; ''Meditating'' (''Quietly cultivating the mind, A countenance calm and composed.''), the seated man leaning on the box in the first image dated 27/05/12.

Still I musn't get too obsessive.

Unfortunately, the URL you gave to show an older piece with a similar decoration came up as an error ''the specified request cannot be executed from the current Application Pool''. Could you give an alternative URL or a suitable search topic? I would be most interested in making a comparison.

Your ''pearls of wisdom'' are most appreciated.

David

PS. Should I be calling this piece a dish or a plate? Or doesn't it matter?

I have found the website that you referred to. It shows the some of the 18 luohans on a bowl much larger (39.5 vs 25cm) and about 100 years older than my piece.

I immediately recognised the ''Doorman'' luohan with the Buddhist staff in his hand. On my piece he is on my second image dated 27/05/12. Below him on his right (images dated 29/5/12) I think there is ''Overseas Luohan'' bearing the sutras (this is addictive!).

Thank you Bill H for a most educational online tutorial.

David

PS Any idea who the ''cigarette smoking'' luohan is on the old bowl?

All,

FYI. The Asian Art site URL field truncates URLs that are too long. If you place the URL in the text of the post, others can swipe it and paste it into a browser to view the referenced site.

Cheers,
Stan

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