D. 40 cm Condition A LARGE SWATOW SLIP-DECORATED BLUE-GROUND BOWL, China, Wanli period. With deep sides, the centre of the interior decorated with a flowering stalk bearing three blossoms amidst feathery leaves, below alternating foliate sprays in the cavetto and a decorative border on the everted rim, all in white slip applied in dots, thin lines and wash on a soft blue ground which continues onto the exterior. A very similar dish is in the British Museum (see J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, p. 347, no. 11:187); and a slightly smaller dish (38.1 cm.) is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Tokyo, 1977, vol. 11, fig. 100-Property from a Dutch private collection, acquired in the 1990s-Slightly chipped, firing crack on the bottom and related fine hairline crack