The collective Baba Malay term for dining ware is 'pinggan mangkok', which literally means 'plates and bowls'. A Peranakan dinner service can total many hundreds of pieces, with about eight different types of vessel shapes and sizes, including dessert ware. These porcelain wares would have elaborate decorations of bird and flower motifs, and colourful enamelled backgrounds of green, yellow and rose pink like this example.Large quantities of this kind of porcelain were made for export to Southeast Asia. Only the wealthiest Peranakan families could afford to place orders for large sets of matching porcelain for celebratory feasts that would bear their surnames. These impressive displays were laid out on the 'tok panjang' (literally ‘long table’) that was the formal dining table for special occasions.This set was made for the Xiao family. It is decorated with the surname Xiao (萧) as a repeated motif on the rims of the bowls and plates in alternation with butterfly designs.
