A pair of blue and white ‘Master of the Rocks’ dishes, late 17th century 十七世紀晚期 青花山水圖盤

The ‘Master of the Rocks’ style refers to a particular painting style in porcelain, characterised by its swift linear strokes and pale blue washes reminiscent of contemporary ink paintings. The present lot belongs to a group of specially commissioned designs created in Jingdezhen during the early Kangxi period. The 17th century saw a great demand for Japanese Arita porcelain. In reaction to this, specific designs were sent to Jingdezhen in China to re-create similar themes on porcelains in order to satisfy the export market. In fact, the imitation was so faithful that one would see spur marks characteristic of the Japanese prototype mirrored in the Chinese porcelain bases, as seen on the bases of the present examples.