Bowl with luanbai glaze. Porcelain with moulded and incised decoration and luanbai glaze. Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, Yuan dynasty, AD 1280–1368. Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF A454. British Museum © Trustees of the British Museum

Shufu porcelain bowl. The bowl has a white body and blue-toned glaze. There is a scrolling pattern incised at the exterior rim, a lotus pattern at the exterior base, and geese among clouds beneath a classical scroll moulded on the interior. There is a mark in the centre of the interior. The base is unglazed. Height: 85 mm. Diameter: 170 mm.

This porcelain bowl is covered with an opaque blue-tinged glaze, except for the base. Outside it is incised with a scrolling pattern under the rim and with lotus petals around the foot. Inside is a moulded design of geese among clouds beneath a classic scroll. In the well is a mark which reads 樞府 (shufu ‘Privy Council’). The invention of this thick egg-white glaze was important for the development of blue-and-white porcelain at Jingdezhen.