A blue and white small barbed-rim dish. Ming dynasty, Yongle period. AN261125001. Bequeathed by Henry J Oppenheim. British Museum © The Trustees of the British Museum

Porcelain dish with bracket-lobed rim painted in underglaze blue. This shallow mould-made dish has rounded eight-lobed sides and a flattened bracket-lobed rim; it stands on a low foot ring. Typical of Yongle underglaze cobalt-blue decoration, the designs appear slightly blurred and out of focus. In the centre is an octagonal bracket-lobed cartouche framing a flowering and budding camellia growing from one branch. In the cavetto are alternating single sprays of camellia and fruiting pomegranate. The flat rim is outlined with blue lines and is painted with a lingzhi scroll. Outside the walls are painted with eight flowers. The foot and top and bottom edges of the rim are emphasized with single blue lines. The base is flat and unglazed but covered with a black deposit, possibly ink. Diameter: 19.7 centimetres; Height: 2.5 centimetres

Identical dishes with tiny variations are in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London.

Bibliographic reference: Harrison-Hall, Jessica, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, BMP, 2001