W:32.5cmA Good Blue and White Dish with Two Deer, late 15th century painted in a dark blue with some areas of pale wash, with a central medallion of a lively pair of spotted deer beneath a pine, the well with a flowering lotus scroll within double line borders, the underside with a similar lotus scroll surrounding the unglazed footrim and baseA similar plate from this rare group, now in the collection of the Tehran Archaeological Museum, is illustrated by John Alexander Pope as plate 71 in 'Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine', Washington 1956, and dated to the late 15th century.Porcelains of this group were luxury imports to the Middle East, and passed on or traded as princely treasures and heirlooms. Pope notes that the dish he illustrates bears the incised collection mark of Qarachaghay Khan, (d.1625).Qarachaghay, the leading general of Abbas the Great, was also famous for his collection of porcelain.