Chinese porcelain saucer with interior artemisia leaf and book tied with auspcious ribbons, and flower sprigs repeated twice in a crowded design.

Chinese porcelain saucer

18th century

Found during excavations by Winchester Museums Service Archaeology Section in a field just east of Wickham Square (opposite St Nicholas Church) in the mid- to late 1970s

This saucer, found in the backfill of a cess pit on the site of Wickham Manor House, is decorated with two motifs from the Buddhist Pa-Pao, or eight Precious Things- the artemisia leaf and the book tied with auspcious ribbons, and floral sprigs in a crowded design. Chinese people did not use saucers, but potters made them for export and sets of matching cups and saucers were made up by merchants from bulk purchases at East India Company auctions.