Bowl with lotus petals

This shape is called the "chicken heart bowl" in Chinese, for its tapered body with a nipple on the bottom resembles a small chicken heart. It was one of the most popular forms of the Yongle-Xuande period and was reproduced often throughout later periods. The interior was incised with a floral band around the lip and with a four-paneled blossom motif at the bottom. A meandering band encircles the outer rim, and lotus petals over a band of wavy patterns surround the body. A rare specimen of this type with the imperial mark written in underglaze-blue around the rim is in the collection of the Idemitsu Museum, Tokyo (Osaka Mus. 1995: pl. 227). This piece, with its glaze marked by the "orange peel" scattered within tiny patches, is considered to date to the Xuande period when such glazes were typical.