The Song dynasty is renowned for the simple elegance of both its lacquer and ceramic ware, where restrained decoration and beautifully-balanced elegant shapes were the main characteristics. The present dish succinctly exemplifies the design concepts of the period. Its slender chrysanthemum petal fluting is much rarer than the broader lobes seen on a number of other lacquer and ceramic objects dating to the Song period, such as the high-footed lacquer bowl with an inscription dating to A.D. 1066 in the Musée Guimet, illustrated in Trésors de Musée National du Palais, Taipei: Memoire d'Empire, Paris, 1998, p. 139. Another example, a larger dish (21.6 cm. diam.) of similar shape, from the collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in Hai-wai Yi-chen, Chinese Art in Overseas Collections: Lacquerware, 1987, no. 35.

This fine fluting is also seen in combination with a flattened rim on larger lacquer dishes of the Song period, such as the dish included in the exhibition at the Museum fur Ostasiastische Kunst der Stadt Koln, Drache und Phoenix - Lackarbeiten aus China: Sammlung der Familie Lee, Tokyo, 1990, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 18; and the black lacquer dish in the Shoto Museum of Art, included in the exhibition, Chinese Lacquerware, 1991, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 6.

The chrysanthemum form is also found on fine ceramics of the Song dynasty. The closest in shape and size to the current lacquer vessel is a Guan ware dish in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, included in the exhibition, China at the Inception of the Second Millennium - Art and Culture of the Song Dynasty, 2000, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. III-9. There are also examples of Ding ware dishes with the fluting combined with a flattened rim and moulded decoration, such as the one from the Percival David Foundation, London, illustrated by J. Wirgin, Sung Ceramic Designs, London, 1979, pl. 98.