A rather unusual Japanese Arita porcelain 12 1/2″ charger decorated in an interpretation of the well-known Dame-Au Parasol pattern. The origin of this very Asian design started in the Netherlands when the Dutch East India Company commissioned an artist, Cornelius Pronk to create some designs that the company could order on export porcelain. This pattern appears in both Chinese and Japanese wares and it has always been a point of speculation as to why a European trading company hired a Dutch artist to design Asian images to be rendered on Asian porcelain by Chinese and Japanese painters?! In any event, the result is both charming and beautiful, in very good condition with only a chip to the reverse filled. Mid-18th century.