Decorated in underglaze blue, with a wide everted rim and a lobed edge, showing two deer in a landscape among stylized rocks and with a large pine tree in the background, surrounded by radiating panels containing alternately paired panels of single flowers and bunches of peaches bordered by narrow panels with dots and spiral designs. The four panels on the reverse are painted with a motif comprising four dots orbiting a spiral.
For a very similar dish, see J. Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, BMP, 2001, 11:106.
Similar shards have been recovered from the cargo of the Witte Leeuw, a homeward-bound Dutch East Indiaman, sunk in 1613. Many variants of this design existed, as evidenced by examples in a private Malaysian collection.
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