Bowl with Deer

This bowl is decorated with six panels of long legged deer against formalized foliage. Deer were believed to live to a very great age and symbolized longevity. It was also thought that they were the only animal capable of finding the sacred fungus of longevity and immorality lingzhi. The inside is painted with simplified peach motifs, also symbols for longevity, and a deer at the center. In 1603 a Portuguese carrack, the Santa Caterina, was captured by the Dutch in the Straits of Malacca and its cargo was sold at auction in Amsterdam on August 15th, 1604. Aboard the carrack was blue and white Chinese porcelain that became known in Dutch as kraakporselein, now referred to as Kraak Porcelain. This bowl is one such example of Kraak Porcelain. A similar bowl is depicted in a Dutch still-life painting by Isaac Soreau [WALTERS 37.1902].