The dish sturdily potted, the shallow widely flared sides rising from a short foot ring, the interior carved to the centre with a fine decorationposed by a foliates crab apple tree, bearing flowers and fruits, all enclosed within a double-line, the cavetto enclosing a motive of six floral sprays as lotus flowers, chrysanthemums and other flowers, and above an encircling motive of a double wavy line interposed by stylized leaves, close up the design of the dish, the exterior in the convex sides a continuous floral band, covered overall with an even translucent glaze of sea-green tone with the exception of the wide ring on the recessed base burnt russet in the firing processes. In very good conditions very light wears and scratches on the surface and some firing imperfections, as acceptable for a porcelain of this type.57,7 cm diam., 9,2 cm highA RARE MAGNIFICENT AND LARGE LONGQUAN CELADON DISH, CHINA, EARLY MING DYNASTY (1368-1644)Note: a similar but smaller dish sold at Christie's New York 20 September 2005 lot 245 from the collection of Mrs Nelson A. RockeffellerCatalogue note: This dish is a fine representative of the Longquan kiln's production during the early fifteenth century when large quantities of wares were made for the Middle Eastern market. In its size and decoration, it closely follows early Ming blue and white porcelains produced at Jingdezhen. Dishes of this type were greatly prized not only for their attractive robust potting and large size but also because it was believed that the glaze colour would change if poisonous food was served on them.Provenance: from the private collection of an important Italian ambassador and thence by descent