The decoration of this coffee pot, with its solid ground of cobalt blue, is of a type known as “bleu persan”, after a style of Persian ceramics imported to Europe in the late seventeenth century. Cobalt is one of the few compounds capable of withstanding high kiln temperatures, and consequently is the ideal medium for...

After nearly sixty years of inactivity, the kilns at Jingdezhen were restored by the Kangxi emperor around 1680. Considered to be one of the greatest Chinese emperors for the progress in the natural sciences and the arts China made under his rule, the Kangxi emperor reigned from 1662 to 1722. During this time, the Jingdezhen...