Dish decorated with foreign hunters and animals

The shape of this dish has puzzled scholars, who have defined it variously as a brushwasher, mortar, inkstone, or warming dish, the latter function suggested by the vessel's hollow pedestal, which may have held hot water to keep the contents of the dish warm. Two types of such dishes, some with round-sides and some in octagonal shapes, have been found, both with three-color glaze and molded decoration. The design motif molded on this piece is unconventional among vessels unearthed from Liao tombs in Liaoning (KG 1960.2: pl. 11, fig. 4) and Inner Mongolia (CGK Zenshu 1986 vol. 17: pl. 138), most of which were prominently embellished with floral patterns. Here, each of the eight walls which surround the round basin of the dish, is decorated with a shallow relief of a foreign hunter and his prey.