This gilt-foliated sauce dish is part of a Nonyaware dinner service. It is bordered in pink with polychrome motifs of flowers in four seasons or are these Buddhist emblems? The interior of the dish has motifs of phoenix and peony in pink, green, blue, brown and iron-red.The collective Baba Malay term for dining ware is 'pinggan mangkok', which literally means 'plates and bowls'. The dinner service can also include cups, saucers, spoons and spoon rests. Wealthy Peranakan families often commissioned the highest quality porcelain wares for special occasions that would bear their surnames. These wares would have elaborate decorations of phoenix and peony motifs, and colourful backgrounds like this example.
