This porcelain wine ewer with a curved spout and overhead handle is decorated in pale silvery underglaze blue with alternating panels of flowers and qilin and formal patterns round the neck and on the lid. The base is sunken, glazed and unmarked. A qilin is a fabulous creature which appears in various forms and is associated with the wish for sons. In Europe it is sometimes described as a unicorn. Similar wine ewers were recovered from the cargo of the Witte Leeuw, lost off St Helena in 1613.