Dish with dragon amongst clouds, Stoneware with carved and incised decoration, transparent glaze and copper rim mount, Ding ware, Quyang county, Hebei province, Northern Song or Jin dynasty, about AD 1050–1234. Height: 25 millimetres, Diameter: 212 millimetres. Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF 116 © 2017 Trustees of the British Museum

The base and foot of both are glazed. Between AD 1086 and AD 1127, Ding potters pioneered the technique of fushao (firing a vessel upside down on its rim). Kiln managers saved on fuel by firing a greater number of pots at one time, stacking them in stepped saggars. The disadvantage was the unglazed mouth rim, cleaned free of glaze to avoid the vessel sticking to the saggar. Craftsmen used sheet copper and occasionally gold or silver, cut to size and heated to fit the rims to hide this flaw. Historical accounts suggest that dressing the rim with metal actually enhanced the status of the clay vessel. The incised inscription on base reads奉華 (feng hua). Fenghua is the name of a city in northern Zhejiang province.