A golden phoenix has flown into a flowering tree and looks into a garden below where a chrysanthemum bush blossoms forth from a mystical rock. The poetry of this scene discloses a hidden reference to the ancient imperial lineage: the fortuitous phoenix, prime creature of the air hovers protectively over the sixteen-petaled chrysanthemum, the kiku, symbol of the Imperial house...

This early tea bowl (chawan) or noodle cup (soba choko) is decorated in classic style with a single chevron on two sides and stripes and indented spaces on the others. There are gold lacquer repairs to five rim chips and a single crack. Approximately 3-5/8 inches high by 3-1/2 inches wide and deep. Japan, circa 1600.

This handsome 10-1/4-inch plate features a highly romanticized lakeside scene of Pomerania, with two ladies in local costume meeting near a mill. They are accompanied by a lanky dog, clearly not your standard Pomeranian. The borders are finely executed neo-rococo, with roses and lace and pearls. Approximately 10-1/4 inches in diameter, the Piece is in excellent condition and retains an old sticker saying that it came from someone's grandmother in about 1780...

The Little Corporal's boots, reinterpreted as table-match holders, stand by his boot-jack, which serves as striker. This finely crafted porcelain fantasy, probably French, is approximately 4/12 inches tall on a plinth about 4 inches by three inches. Condition is excellent, with only minor wear to the gilding at the top of the plinth, and a small under-glaze chip at the base.

In excellent condition, these relief-decorated gourd-form bottles are graced by stylized chrysanthemums in deep mustard on a hare's-fur deep-blue ground, a very unusual combination. Chinese, late Nineteenth Century. Approximately 6-1/2 inches high by 3-1/4 inches in diameter.

This sort of bouquetiere or pique-fleurs mural (cut-flower vase) was designed to stand close to the wall, or close to a mirror, in which its flowers would appear doubled. It was made in Moustiers, France, probably at Fouque factory (cf: Nouveau Tardy, Faiences de Moustier, page 98, fig. 185) in the third quarter of the Eighteenth Century. It displays the popular Louis XV motif of a central rococo cartouche with flags and arrows and a quiver...

In an extraordinarily fine state of preservation, this rare German faience charger was created in the early Frankfurt-am-Main factory of Johann Simonet in the late Seventeenth Century. Its lively decoration in the Chinese style features birds and stylized flowers in an imaginative landscape. Elaborate double channeling lends further animation to the effect. Approximately 14 inches in diameter and 2-1/2 inches deep, it has no breaks or repairs...

Dating from the early years of the Eighteenth Century, this fine example of early English earthenware relates to one in the collection of George Washington, our country's first president. It was made in about 1720 in the London area, probably at Lambeth. In excellent condition, with some professionally repaired chips one to the upper edge and several to the base, it has a chinoiserie design of passion flowers and trailing vines with an inner-rim border above a stylized flower...

Bearing the mark of Jacobus Adriaensz Halder, master faiencier of the famous De Grieksche A (The Greek A) factory in Delft, this charmingly flower-bedecked figurine is in excellent condition. Late Eighteenth Century, Holland. Approximately four inches by 3-1/4 inches by 1-3/4 inches.

In superb condition, the set of six elaborate plates bears the early mark of Mason's Patented Ironstone, and is decorated with an elaborate chinoiserie design of pheasants in a fantasy landscape. Colors and gilding are lavish and each plate retains a sticker indicating that it was purchased at Boston's exclusive Shreve, Crump and Lowe. English, circa 1830.

Not exactly a nature-study, unless there is a strain of maize with blue husks that I have not heard of. Nevertheless, this is charming and well-detailed six-inch delight is in excellent condition, with a gilded base. French, of the second quarter of the Nineteenth Century.

In superb condition, this pair of Rouen faience is decorated with brilliant chinoiserie lambrequins. Bearing the the factory mark of La Veuve Levavasseur, they measure approximately 5-3/4 inches high and are four inches square at the flared tops. French, circa 1770.