Deep Dish made for export, c. 1600, 3 3/4 x 15 3/8 x 15 3/8 in. (9.53 x 39.05 x 39.05 cm), Porcelain with underglaze blue decor (Swatow ware), China, 16th-17th century, Most Chinese wares destined for export are more roughly made and simply decorated than the high end domestic wares and imperial porcelain. Swatow, one of the best known export wares of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, was named after the port city, north of Canton, on the South China coast where it was assumed, erroneously, to have been exported from. This was, however, the region of China where the 'scholars of Kwangtung' who had befriended Matteo Ricci first suggested he make a map of the various countries he had passed through in coming to China. The region was well known for the export of blue-and-white porcelain to Southeast Asia and Europe, and this sort of popular ware would have been familiar to Ricci.