Hand-Painted Jingdezhen Snowman Vase, 'Little Xuěrén'

Hand-Painted Jingdezhen Ceramic Vase

Xuěrén (雪人) means snowman, and this cheerful one wears a red scarf and beanie among drifting blue snowflakes, hand-painted on a speckled cream body with a red polka-dot neck and handle. A sweet home for a few winter stems or a Christmas posy. 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