Blue and white Dragon dish, Ming dynasty, Zhengde mark and period (1506-1521). Height: 23.8 cm, Diameter: 4 cm. Donated by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, Franks.303.+ © 2017 Trustees of the British Museum

Porcelain dish with underglaze blue decoration. This dish has shallow rounded sides and a generous tapering foot. It is painted in cobalt blue beneath the glaze with dragons in different attitudes among lotus scrolls. In the centre the dragon is shown prancing with open jaws, bulging eyes and horns, and in the cavetto and outside there are two dragons, one with its jaws shut, revealing fangs, the other with open jaws and a contorted neck. The foot is decorated with a border of 'ruyi' heads. The dish has a glazed base bearing a four-character Zhengde reign mark within a double ring. 

This pattern of dragons on a ground of lotus was used on a range of table wares made for the Zhengde court. Dishes, bowls, ewers, stem cups, spittoons and bell-shaped bowls are all known with this style of dense decoration. Many dishes of this design survive, including another example at the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, one in the Tianminlou Collection and another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Harrison-Hall 2001 8:15.