1-234-472 - The Museum of East Asian Art/Heritage Images

Kraak blue and white bowl with birds and flowers, Ming dynasty, China, 1560-1580. Group 2 Kraak blue and white bowl with everted bracketed rim. The bowl is decorated in the centre with a thrush standing on a rock gazing at the moon amid grasses, beneath a deep band with groups of pheasants standing on rock or searching for food with floral sprays issuing from rock separated by insects and two moons. The exterior has spotted deer, a song bird in bamboo tree, large lotus spray, insects and moon. The decoration is individually painted in several shades of blue ranging from deep almost black tones to pale silvery blue.