Dish on footring, spreading sides. Decorated in green enamel with a curling dragon chasing a flaming pearl between cloud and flame motifs. Outlines and details are in black enamel. The sides are undecorated, a green line around the rim. On the outside two dragons. On the base in underglaze blue the six-character mark Kangxi in a double circle. This dish is an imitation of a Zhengde piece (see cat. 2). There are differences however: outlines and details are rendered in black enamel, a flaming pearl has been added and the whole decoration is sharper and somewhat ‘harder’. Similar imitations were made to honour the past and to create a link between the ruling emperor Kangxi (1662–1722) and the glory of the Ming dynasty.