bird-feeder
- Museum number
- PDF,A.684
- Description
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Small porcelain bird feeder in the form of a section of bamboo. Underglaze blue with a stylised flower head on each end and small flower and leaf sprays around each section. Horizontal inscription on side.
- Production date
- 16thC-17thC
- Dimensions
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Height: 36 millimetres
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Width: 42 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
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Published PDF date : Ming 16th-17th century
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Room 95 label text:
PDF A684
Blue-and-white bird feeder
Keeping pets was a fashionable Ming pastime. Caged birds were taught to talk, sing and perform tricks for entertainment. This porcelain bird feeder was made to be attached to a bird’s cage. It may have contained water or hemp seeds which, even today in China, are still thought to make birds sing more sweetly. There is an apocryphal six-character horizontal Xuande reign mark in underglaze blue along one side. Archaeologists have excavated an impressive range of Xuande mark and period bird feeders from the Xuande strata at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen.
Porcelain with underglaze cobalt-blue decoration
Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province 江西省, 景德鎮
Ming dynasty, Wanli period, AD 1573–1620
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PDF A684
青花鳥食罐
飼養寵物在明代是一種流行的消遣。鳥被放在籠中訓練對話、唱歌和表演小技巧,用以娛樂。此瓷鳥食罐作為附屬器皿置於鳥籠中。或許用來盛放水或大麻籽,後者至今仍被認為可使鳥類歌唱的聲音更為甜美。一側橫署青花六字宣德寄託年款。考古學家在景德鎮御窯遺址的宣德時期地層中,發現了各種各樣帶宣德款的鳥食罐,讓人印象深刻。
瓷器,青花
江西省景德鎮
明代,萬曆, 1573-1620年
- Location
- On display (G95/dc22/sh2)
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- PDF,A.684