Hand-Painted Jingdezhen Christmas Tree Vase, 'Shèngdàn Forest'

Hand-Painted Jingdezhen Ceramic Vase

Shèngdàn (圣诞) is Mandarin for Christmas, and this little vase brings a Christmas forest to the table: two hand-painted green trees with festive confetti on a speckled cream body, topped with a red polka-dot neck and handle. Fill it with pine sprigs, berries or dried flowers. Jingdezhen, in China's Jiangxi province, has been the country's porcelain capital for more than a thousand years. Its fine white clay (the word kaolin comes from nearby Gaoling village) and its imperial kilns made Chinese blue-and-white, qīnghuā, famous around the world: designs painted in cobalt beneath a clear glaze, then fired at high heat so the blue glows from within the porcelain.

• Country / Region: China
• Artisan: Jingdezhen porcelain workshop
• Material: Hand-painted glazed ceramic
• Weight: 450 g