The shape of this bowl is unusually deep and globular. Two very similar covered vessels are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo Yuqi Quanji, vol. 6, pl. 100 with nearly identical medallions but lacking the rings, and pl. 107 with a similar style of cover; while another from the Tianjin Municipal Museum is illustrated in Cang Yu, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 207. Two related covered bowls, known as lian or cosmetic boxes, similarly modelled with loose rings, are illustrated in Jadeware (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1995, pls. 197 and 198. Cf. also a bowl illustrated in Jade, Ch'ing Dynasty Treasures from the National Museum of History, Taipei, 1997, pl. 200.

The shape of the present vessel is loosely based on an archaic bronze shape, the ding, dating from the 6th and 5th centuries B. C., such the example from the Museum of Eastern Art, Oxford, illustrated by William Watson, Ancient Chinese Bronzes, London, 1977, pl. 66a. The ding was a food container that varied in shape in different periods and depending on the region, but typically, it is characterised by a rounded body, three columnar legs, upright flange handles and loop handles on the cover.

The archaistic form of the bowl is juxtaposed against the Qing style of decoration. These roundels were also popularly found on Japanese textiles and later adopted as a design on Yongzheng and Qianlong famille rose porcelains, such as the pair of bowls sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 May 1995, lot 669.