Melon shaped pot from the donation of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando I de 'Medici, Annam, mid 15th Century

Exquisite Chinese porcelain was already more than a hundred years before Augustus the Strong (1670 - 1733) come to Dresden. In 1590 the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinando I de 'Medici made (1549 to 1609), the Court of Dresden under Christian I of Saxony (1560-1591), a gift of fourteen Chinese porcelains, eight of which have up to now in the obtain Dresden porcelain collection.The painted in underglaze blue large pot in the form of unusual melon originated in Annam or Vietnam and in the middle of the 15th Century to date. After the contribution of Reidemeister from the year 1933, this pot could have belonged to the Medici gift. He puts him in connection with the entry in the Dresden inventory "1 large bowl of Porcellana inward white and outside manoeuvrable with blue blettern gemahlet" and voices the suspicion that this pot in Florence could possibly have served as a model for the painting of Medici porcelain. Unfortunately, in on the object no indication of provenance. The pot, which has twelve ribs, painted in individual panels thus formed alternating with stylized lotus and tendrils and a mixture of stylized lotus and chrysanthemum flowers. While the decor of the pot on Chinese models from the production of Jingdezhen can be attributed, however, differs from characteristic thereof; also the melon shape is more typical of the annamesische origin. Comparison is an important piece of a large pot of Topkapi Seraglio Museum, which is equipped with a 1450 dated inscription. The Vietnamese labeled with Chinese characters indicating that the pot "for the pleasure of the potter Bui Nam-zhou zi in the eighth year of the era Thai hoa was painted." Nam-zhou zi is the name of Annam, the indication corresponds to 1450 years. " (From: Giambologna in Dresden, The Dresden gifts of the Medici in 2006, P. 103 - 110.)