Deep Circular Charger with Everted Lip and Blossoming Peony Decor

Like the Charger with Peacock Decoration displayed nearby, this large dish was likely fashioned for a foreign buyer, as wares of this shape and size were not traditionally used in China. Its decorative motif, however, of a double peony with one blossom up and the other down, is Chinese. A floral scroll of blossoming lotuses interspersed with lotus leaves occupies the inner walls, while designs of flowering and fruiting branches decorate the rim. This pattern is relatively rare (one of the few other published examples comes from a set of chargers in the Ardebil Shrine in Tehran), but the exceptional quality of the painting on this piece is even more remarkable. Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain produced during the Yongle (1403–24) and Xuande (1426–35) reigns is considered the finest, most desirable blue-and-white ware ever made because of its radiant glaze, superb porcelain body, magnificent cobalt-blue color, and expertly rendered painted decoration. Although many of the early fifteenth-century wares produced at Jingdezhen were created for the Chinese imperial court, some were made specifically for export to wealthy clients in the Islamic world.