This monumental blue-and-white Safavid charger features an unusual repertoire of motifs and forms. The moulded white cavetto is fluted with a flanged rim. Enclosing the central decoration is an 8-bracketed frame, borrowed from Kraak dishes. It consists of alternating fish scale patterns and interlocking diaper pattern, which derives from a simplified version of the Chinese character 壽 (shoù), meaning ‘longevity’.The well is decorated with a large vase, from which emerge two veined Kraak-style flowers and two leafy peaches. Below the vase are bamboo foliage, and flying above is an insect. The reverse of the dish is highly unusual. It is entirely cobalt blue, but for the underside of the well which is white and marked with a blue potter’s mark. It is a square seal mark with pseudo-Chinese characters, imitating a nienhao (reign mark). This dish has many features of a group of dishes produced in the first half of the 17th century in Mashhad. They are characterised by a central medallion decorated by a Chinese-derived design, such as flowers in a vase, waterfowls, or dragons. The design is framed by a ‘Kraak’ frame. The cavetto is left blank. They almost always have square potters’ marks, made up of a box with a hatched square in one corner and pseudo-Chinese characters in the other three corners.However, they tend to have incised cavettos, rather than fluted. An example of such a dish is held in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (accession no. 995.142.1). It is almost the same size as the present example, at 47cm diameter, and has a similar 9-panelled Kraak border. Its potter’s mark is of the same type.

Gifted to Michael Archer (1936-2022) by Arthur Lane’s widow in circa mid-1960s.
Thence by descent.