Blue and white saucer dish, pan, Ming dynasty, Chenghua-Hongzhi, circa 1485. Photo courtesy Marchant

with gently flared rim painted in the centre with a lotus bouquet consisting of central flowerhead, leaves, a bud, a pod and arrow heads, all tied with a ribbon above stylised water, within a double ring encircled by a geometric cross-hatch design at the rim, the underside decorated with the eight Buddhist emblems, ba bao, each supported by a flowerhead on a continuous scrolling branch with leaves and between double rings. 22.3cm diameter. Price on request

• From the collection of Sir George Lobouchère of Dudmaston Hall, Shropshire, England (1905-1999). Sir George Lobouchère was a counsellor in Nanjing serving in the foreign office from 1946 to 1948 and was also British ambassador to Belgium from 1955 to 1960 and to Spain from 1960 to 1966.
• Sold by Christie’s London in their auction of Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 11th May 2010, no. 231, p. 139, The Property of a Nobleman.
• A dish of this group with central formal lotus flowerhead medallion and flowerheads on the underside, also on a singular scrolling branch, formerly in the collection of Mrs Alfred Clark, and included in The Exhibition of Chinese Blue and White Porcelain: 14th to 19th Centuries, Oriental Ceramic Society at the Arts Council Gallery, 1953, no. 113, is illustrated by Regina Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume II, no. 680, pp. 66/7, where the author notes ‘this dish is unmarked but made of porcelain of exceptionally fine quality, as is known particularly from the Chenghua period.’
• A dish of this form and size, painted with the Three Friends of Winter encircled by a lingzhi, fungus continuous scrolling branch bearing a Chenghua mark, is illustrated by Du Zhengsheng in The Catalogue of The Special Exhibition of Ch’eng-hua Ware, The National Palace Museum, Taiwan, 2003, no. 42, p. 68.
• A larger similarly unmarked dish dated to mid-Chenghua with a lotus flowerhead border, again on a continuous scrolling branch, similarly painted to the above dish is illustrated by Gong Nongmin in The Legacy of Chenghua, Imperial Porcelain of The Chenghua Reign Excavated from Zhushan, Jingdezhen, jointly presented and published by the Jingdezheng Institute of Ceramic Archaeology and The Tsui Museum of Art, 1993, no. B26, pp. 140/1.

Marchant. 'Chinese Ceramics Tang to Qing' exhibiting tuesday 6th may - friday 30th may 2014 - http://www.marchantasianart.com/