Imari dish
Japanese export porcelain in cobalt blue, iron red and gold that filled the palaces of Europe.
When Chinese exports were cut off by civil war in the mid-17th century, the Dutch East India Company bought porcelain in Japan. Imari became so popular that Meissen and Chinese kilns copied it. Examples are in the Rijksmuseum and at Burghley House.
Materials: Porcelain with underglaze blue and enamels with gold
Manufacture: Made at Arita and shipped from the port of Imari; blue painted under the glaze, red and gold over it.
The dense decoration in blue, red and gold covering almost the whole surface.
Panels of flowers, and often a vase or landscape in the centre.