THREE MASSIVE BLUE AND WHITE 'PEACOCK' CHARGERS Kangxi period, circa 1700 Each of these three matching chargers is decorated in underglaze blue with an elaborate design of a central roundel of flowers surround by eight leaf-shaped panels containing flowers, the rim with four peacocks alternating with floral reserves on a scrolling lotus ground, the reverse with Daoist symbols and a sacred fungus (lingzhi). 21 3/4in (55.3cm) diam (3). Footnotes: 康熙時期 約1700年 大件青花《孔雀》盤三件 Published Cohen & Cohen, A Game of Bowls, Ghent, 2014, pp. 28-29, no. 21 出版： 倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《A Game of Bowls》，根特，2014年，頁28-29，圖版編號21 These elaborate and high-quality chargers are fine examples of pieces that were very popular for displays in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, often in special rooms called 'porcelain cabinets'. While produced at the height of the production of blue and white in the early eighteenth century, interest in this ware was renewed in the nineteenth century. One of the most famous displays of such collections was the Peacock Room in the London home of Frederick R. Leland (1831-92), which was later purchased by Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919) and is now installed at the Freer Gallery, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. In China the peacock is a symbol of beauty and dignity, and, in the Qing dynasty, the tail feathers were used to show official rank. References: R. A. Collection, an identical dish, in Pinto de Matos, 2003, no. 11, 70; Merrill, 1998, The Peacock Room: A Cultural Biography.