Drinking bowl and lower shell with Chinese merchant shipping scene

Drinking bowl and lower shell, Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Porcelain Manufactory,  Meissen, Germany around 1725, Porcelain.
Courtesy of Johann Jacobs Museum

The plate shows a meeting of two merchants: a Dutchman and a Chinese. Sailing ships are anchored in the bay. Junks deliver the much sought-after goods: tea, silk and porcelain. They pay with silver or gold. The rock in the background does not yet know that it will one day be called Hong Kong.