The dish is painted in the centre with a composite floral scroll of a peony surrounded by an azalea, a rose, a lotus and a camellia framed by a barbed double blue line. The well has twelve flowers in diametrically opposed pairs of lotus, morning glory, hibiscus, pomegranate, chrysanthemum and peony. The everted barbed rim has a lingzhi fungus scroll. The exterior matches the well decoration, while the base is unglazed.

A larger dish of similar shape was excavated in the Yongle stratum at Dongmenton, Zhushan, Jingdezhen in 1994. These dishes are found in a number of museums and collections round the world, with no fewer than eleven examples at the Ardebil shrine in Iran.

Literature: Anthony du Boulay, The Duberly Collection of Chinese Art at Winchester College (Winchester, 2019), p. 24

Provenance: Bequeathed as part of the Duberly Collection, 1978; purchased by Major Montagu and Lady Eileen Duberly from John Sparks, 1 May 1950 (£100)

Location: Treasury, Gallery 2