Bowl with crane

The arrangement of stylized panels on the exterior with the main motif of a single crane in cloud buds is consistent with the pattern of decoration found on other underglaze-blue wares of the Ming period. Since the thirteenth century, wares of the cizhou type began to use more polychrome pigments to enrich decorations. Cizhou kilns in Hebei, Henan, and Shanxi carried on the business through the Ming dynasty, to serve the common market and as well as court orders. The interior of this work was painted with a red crane surrounded by four green clouds and bordered by red lobed panels and circular bands mottled in green and yellow. The outside was painted with red leaves bearing green pistils.