526. Islamic Market Chinese Dish

Dish made for the North Indian Islamic Market

This export Chinese porcelain dish was made in southern China for export to the Islamic market in India.

Decorated with a polychrome border of flowers and leaves and with a central plaque in red with Persian script, which reads as ‘Mohamed Saleh, walad Ismail.ji’ (Mohamed Saleh, son of Ismail’ and the year 1236 AH (approximately 1821 AD).

That the plate was commissioned for a Muslim client in India rather than somewhere else is attested to by the use of the honorific ‘ji’ which is an Indian title of respect.

Essentially, this dish is a wide plate with raised sides – suitable for eating foods prepared with a gravy and when hands are used instead of eating utensils.

Greensted, M., & P. Hardie, Chinese Ceramics: The Indian Connection, City of Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, 1982.