Bowl with famille-rose plum blossom decoration and poem

This stunning, beautifully designed and flawlessly executed bowl belongs to a small group of famille-rose wares that were decorated at a special workshop inside the Forbidden City in Beijing. The imperial kilns at Jingdezhen manufactured very thinly potted, pure white vessels with a specially refined glaze to best display the enamel decorations, which were then painted at the palace by the finest artisans available. At first, these painters used enamels (known as falangcai) that were imported from Europe. Later, the enamels were produced at Jingdezhen from locally available materials.