AN IMPOSING AND RARE MASSIVE BLUE AND WHITE CHARGER Qianlong period, circa 1750-1760 Painted in rich underglaze cobalt blue with a central river landscape with a pagoda on a distant shoreline amidst trees, hills and mountains above, the foreground with a bridge leading to a flat-roofed structure with small buildings, a boat drifts in the mid distance and two, seemingly out-sized, mandarin ducks fly and swim nearby, the cavetto painted with four small ogival peony panels set against a dense stylized flower-head cell ground, the wide everted border with four floral groupings alternately peony and chrysanthemum with asters below a diaper-cell-ground band at the brown-dressed rim, the exterior plain, save for a feint blue stripe at one edge, the wide rounded foot rim unglazed and a square unglazed patch at the center for support in the kiln. 24in (60cm) diam Footnotes: 乾隆時期 約1750-1760年 罕有大件青花古塔湖景圖盤 This is almost certainly one of the largest such chargers recorded and is at the physical limits for this type - any larger and it would warp or collapse in the kiln. It is finely painted and in excellent condition, save for a few kiln adhesions and iron spots.