Chenghua Blue-and-white Bowl with Intertwining-vine Motifs

Unearthed from the Ming-dynasty tomb in Yangzhou Institute of Agricultural Science in 1978, this bowl has an opening rim that expands outwards, slightly curvy belly and ring-shaped base that tapers. It is embellished with blue floral patterns on both inside and outside, with ruyi-shaped Buddhist pestles adorned with ribbons on the interior bottom, five camellia flower branches along the interior wall, a belt of ribbon motifs circling the interior edge of rim and two parallel lines surrounding the exterior edge of rim, large-sized lotus vines on the exterior side of belly under which lies a circle of lotus petals. The composition of decorative elements was ingeniously designed and a series of painting techniques were applied such as boneless painting for patterns on the interior side and double-line flat coloring on those of the exterior side.