A rare blue and white 'lotus' dish. Ming dynasty, Yongle period. Photo: Courtesy Sotheby's well potted with gently curving sides, finely painted in vivid tones of underglaze-blue with characteristic 'heaping and piling', decorated to the interior with...

A rare blue and white barbed floral dish. Ming dynasty, Yongle period. Photo: Courtesy Sotheby's painted in deep purplish-blue shades of cobalt with 'heaping and piling' effect, centred with a meandering spray consisting of five different floral blooms...