During the Renaissance period, the fascination with China porcelain was so great that the Europeans did their utmost to discover the secret of its manufacture. One of the closest attempts at imitation was achieved in Florence, resulting in the so-called “Medici porcelain”, composed of a delicate variety of soft paste, a white clay body mixed with glass frit, possibly made between 1575 and 1587, under the patronage of Francesco I de´ Medici, the Grand Duke of Tuscany.

This ewer, which was mentioned in the 1589 inventory of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I, the brother and the successor of Francisco de´ Medici, is a harmonious piece with a dragon-headed spout and handle and a Renaissance decoration with Moorish adornments. The basin, inspired upon a faience piece, also displays a Renaissance decoration and the figure of St. John the Evangelist, copied from an engraving by the German Heinrich Aldegrever, in accordance with a drawing made by Georg Pencz, whose monogram is on the book.