Gigantic dish with dragons among lotus scrolls, Ming dynasty, Jiajing period, AD 1522–1566, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. Porcelain decorated in underglaze cobalt blue and yellow glaze. Diameter: 79,4 cm. Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF 731 © 2017 Trustees of the British Museum

Porcelain dish with flared sides and slightly everted rim. There is a full-faced dragon among lotus scrolls in underglaze blue on a yellow enamel ground in the centre of the interior, and a similar design on the exterior.

Technically, potters found this dish extremely difficult to produce without warping in the kiln. It is 126 cm in diameter. The dish had two firings once for the underglaze blue dragons and lotus scroll and once for the lower fired yellow glaze. Very few examples survive today. Unusually this has no reign mark.