A large Longquan celadon-glazed 'diaper' dish, Ming dynasty | 明 龍泉窰青釉劃花大盤

Collection of John Turner (1901-1970), and thence by family descent. 

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John Turner (1901-1971)先生收藏，此後家族傳承

With subtle glaze pooling over a deftly incised diaper pattern and scrolling lotus around the cavetto, this monumental charger is typical of those found in major Islamic collections including 53 plates of this design in various sizes in the Topkapi Saray illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. I, pp. 328-9, no. 354; compare also a related dish from the Ardebil Shrine in modern-day Iran, illustrated in John Alexander Pope, Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, D.C., 1956, pl. 29.630.

John Turner (1901-1970) spent some thirty years in India, and travelled widely in the Americas and Asia while making his collection. An amateur potter, with considerable practical experience in the material processes, he advised Mortimer Wheeler on the nature of shards found in Harappa. The pieces of celadon shown here were gifted to him by the Nizam of Hyderabad in the 1940’s.