Blue-and-white dish with lozenge and foliate motifs

This is one of three dishes in the cargo decorated with brilliant blue pigments. They are among the earliest complete Chinese blue-and-white ceramics known. Although produced in China, the potters used cobalt minerals likely sourced from Iran while the lozenge motif on them is a design favoured in the Middle East. The production of blue-and-white wares was short-lived during the Tang dynasty, and the Tang Shipwreck examples may have been experimental prototypes sent for the approval of Middle Eastern clients.

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Blue-and-white dish with lozenge & foliate motifs

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A blue and white dish

Dish