Rock and wave

The rock and wave design or motif is found painted on the outer borders of some Asian ceramics. It originated in Chinese porcelain of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) and was later very often used in Iznik pottery and other Turkish ceramics.^[1] It represents turbulent waves breaking onto rocks, which are generally depicted as a regular pattern with a considerable degree of stylization, especially in Turkish examples. It is normally in blue and white, even where other parts of the piece use other colours.

The "rocks" are represented by blue spiral lines on a white background, and the waves by irregular shapes in white, sometimes with lines within them.^[2]

Turkish versions of the design were produced by c. 1500 if not earlier.^[3] The Turkish designs are sometimes criticized as "poorly understood" versions of the Chinese motif,^[4] and in many pieces, the design seems to have lost the sense of the marine subject.