Ten-Sided Foliate-Rimmed Washer with Incised and Reserved-Decoration Birds and Loquats, under Sacrificial-Red Glaze

Look closely at the bird. That white isn't painted on. The potter carved the bird and loquat branches into the clay, then glazed the whole dish in copper red and left the carved design bare. Where the glaze was kept off, the white porcelain body shows through. Chinese potters call this "liu bai," leaving white.

It's far harder than it sounds. Copper-red glaze runs and spreads in the kiln, so keeping those crisp white edges, wing feathers and leaf veins sharp through the firing took enormous control.

The bird is a paradise flycatcher (shoudai niao), named for its long ribbon-like tail. "Shou" sounds like the word for longevity, and the ribbons recall the silk cords of an official's seal: a wish for long life and high office. The loquat, ripening gold in early summer, adds abundance.

A ten-lobed washer with a petal-shaped rim, from the Xuande reign (1426–1435), the golden age of Ming copper red.

The washer is of a ten-sided, foliate-lobed form, its body modelled with ten distinct melon-ribbed panels. This characteristic form is associated with Xuande-period imperial ceramics, distinguished by its crisply defined ribs and elegantly lobed rim. Intended as a scholar’s washer, it could also serve as a refined display vessel.

The vessel is covered in a rich sacrificial-red (jihan) glaze, with the decoration rendered in the carved-and-reserved technique. The floral and avian motifs were first incised into the body, with the decorated areas left unglazed to reveal the white porcelain body, while the surrounding ground was coated with a dense layer of sacrificial-red glaze before firing. The resulting red ground and white decoration create a striking and highly effective contrast.

The principal design depicts ribbon birds perched among branches of fruiting loquat, accompanied by smaller birds in flight, lending the composition a lively and animated quality. The loquat, with its abundance of fruit, conveys wishes for plentiful harvest and prosperity, while the ribbon bird carries the auspicious connotation of longevity through the homophonic association of shou (寿, longevity) with the “ribbon” (shou 绶). Together, the motifs express wishes for blessings, longevity, prosperity, and abundant offspring, forming a classic auspicious decorative theme of the Ming imperial court.

Sacrificial red is a prestigious copper-red glaze of the Ming dynasty, renowned for its exceptionally demanding firing process and the rarity of successful examples. Here, the carved-and-reserved technique dispenses with painted decoration, instead exploiting the contrast between the red glaze and the unglazed white porcelain body to create a bold and dignified effect. The combination of ribbon birds and loquats conveys auspicious wishes for longevity, abundant blessings, and plentiful fruitfulness.

The base bears a six-character underglaze-blue reign mark, “大明宣德年製” (Da Ming Xuande Nian Zhi), written in regular script (kaishu) in two vertical columns within double concentric circles, read from right to left as “大明 / 宣德年製.” The washer has a typical ten-sided foot characteristic of the form.