A FINE BLUE AND WHITE 'GRAPEÄ CHARGER, China, Yongle period (1403-1425), finely potted with rounded sides rising from a short tapered foot to a wide everted rim, painted in rich inky tones of cobalt-blue accented with characteristic 'heaping and piling', the interior decorated with a medallion enclosing three pendent bunches of grapes suspending from a gnarled vine issuing broad curling leaves and coiling tendrils, surrounded on the cavetto with a leafy composite floral scroll bearing twelve flowering blooms, including chrysanthemum, lotus, peony and morning glory, all within a border of crashing waves on the rim, the exterior similarly rendered with a different composite floral scroll of twelve floral blossoms, including a lingzhi bloom, the unglazed base fired with subtle orange speck - Provenance: Former old uropean private collection, acquired in the 1970s according to the present owner - Hairlines and breaks