This makes me smile. It arrived today.
OK. You may be thinking that's just a bowl and you'd be both right and wrong. That is a bowl from 景德镇 (jǐng dé zhèn) in Jiangxi Province in eastern China. For over 1,000 years, Jingdezhen has been the centre of ceramic production in China. For much of that time, it exclusively made porcelain ware for the emperors. Some examples have sold for up to 32 million dollars USD. Mine was slightly cheaper at $3 USD.
I visited Jingdezhen in 1997. They had, I hope still have, a working museum making ceramics in the traditional way - all hand crafted and hand painted etc. I found it fascinating. Sadly that was pre-cell phone cameras or digital anything, but here are scans of the only three pictures I can find.
