Ming presentation porcelain was a variety of high quality Chinese porcelain items included among the gifts exchanged in foreign relations during the

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

. Among the great number and variety of

Chinese ceramics Chinese ceramics are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. They range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese ...

found in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

and greater

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

is a variety that closely resembles Ming official ware in its use of dragon and phoenix motifs and high quality materials with workmanship. The scholar Liu Liangyou in an article entitled “Chinese Ceramics Excavated in Thailand” in the 49th issue of the ''National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art'', suggested that such finely executed ceramics could only be products of an official workshop and part of the gift system in place for Ming Dynasty foreign relations. Liang quotes the ''Ming Dynastic History'' ( Mingshi) 339th chapter for

Champa Champa (Cham language, Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, چمڤا; ; 占城 or 占婆) was a collection of independent Chams, Cham Polity, polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day Central Vietnam, central and southern Vietnam from ...

and Cambodia (Zhancheng Zhenla zhuan) for the year 1383. The Ming court presented Siam (Thailand) nineteen thousand items of ceramic ware. Three years later it is also noted that the court presented Cambodia with an unspecified quantity of ceramic items. We can assume that the number of items was significant also and the time period for such exchanged continued at least through the early Ming dynastic period. The blue-and-white phoenix dish reproduced here, and discovered in Southeast Asia, is identical to the example in the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, dated mid 15th century.

Xuande mark and period

Within all periods of the Ming Dynasty, the Xuande mark and period (1426-35) is often considered to be one of the most sophisticated periods in the history of Chinese Blue and White porcelain crafts.

Notes

References

* Liu Liang-yu, "Chinese Ceramics Excavated in Thailand," in ''National Palace Museum Monthly of Chinese Art'', Taipei, 1987, pp. 81–86. * Jan Fontein, ''Oriental Ceramics'', vol. 10, Boston, 1980, plate 220. {{Ming dynasty topics Chinese porcelain Ming dynasty art