This Chinese late Ming 8-sided covered box with a crab motif painted in an underglaze blue, and decorated in overglazed enamels of red and greens in floral sprays. Polychrome ceramics and red and green overglaze enamels are some of the characteristics Zhangzhou ware is known for. Zhangzhou wares such as this were commonly known as ‘Swatow ware’ due to the erroneous belief that the wares were shipped out from the port of Zhantou (Swatow). Zhangzhou ware was produced largely, if not solely, for foreign tastes and export, instead of local market. Specimens have discovered in Japan and some parts of Southeast Asia, including Indonesia. The flourishing of the trade and export of Zhangzhou ware during the Ming period has been argued to have been due to the opening of the new port of Yuegang in the 1540s and the lifting of the official trade ban in 1567.
