Moulded Portuguese faience salver of white-tin glazed and cobalt-blue painted decoration, its design characterised by a deepwell, moulded reliefs lip, scalloped rim and central raised foot.Characterised by foliage motifs of Chinese inspiration,its central decorative composition comprises of stylised peachesand chrysanthemums emerging from rock outcrops within a riverpanorama. This condensed scene is framed by a decagonal frieze,repeated on the edge of the well, forming a double frame filled upby vertical parallel lines.The salver lip is segmented into ten symmetrical and scallopedsections, each of five lobes and reliefs decoration, alternatingwith small gadrooned elements with faces, or masks motifs, flankedby equidistant scrolls resting on triangles filled by spiralled anddotted circles.On the verse, a composition of two peripheral parallel lines,completing ten arches that follow the frontal sections outline. Thecircular straight edged and raised foot, denotes some wear and tearcompatible with the salver’s dating.This small dish’s format is clearly inspired by the footed salversproduced by 16th century goldsmiths’ which, similarly to thisexample, featured gadrooned and scalloped rims. In this instance,the Portuguese potter moulded and decorated with conspicuousnaivety this small Italian inspired object.Even though the stylistically origin of this salver can quiteeasily be identified in various analogous pieces of European faiencefrom the 1500s and 1600s, its most defining ascendency is certainlyfrom the Chinese porcelain decorative motifs that stand out fromits central composition. Such inspiration is evident in the depicted landscape, withits hills and stream, accompanied by peaches and chrysanthemums,respectively symbols for immortality and joviality in the Chineseiconography. A precious and sophisticated object for its mouldedshape and sharp reliefs, it is decorated in various cobalt-blue gradationsthat enhance the bright tin-white glaze. Contrary to thelocally available tin oxide, or cassiterite, the cobalt oxide chosenfor the salver decoration, attained by calcination to produce theblue pigment, was imported from afar, and hence more expensiveand dependant of international trade1.Although unusual, similar salvers can be seen at the Vianado Castelo Decorative Arts Museum, in northern Portugal (Inv.420 and 465), at Lisbon’s Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (Inv. 2433and 2294), and at Vila Viçosa’s Ducal palace, in the Alentejo2. TheSão Roque collection does also feature two other analogous salvers (Inv. C645 and C646).