While the Masons have borrowed the traditional Chinese dish form known as a "shrimp dish" for this bit of fancy tableware, the piece was almost certainly a cake plate--survivor of a more extensive dessert service. Appropriately it is adorned with one of the pottery's venerable early Chinoiserie patterns, "Scroll."

A central scroll unfurls to reveal another traditional Chinese design--the "tall stand" group utilized by a number of English potters. Just as traditional are the groupings of Chinese objects or "treasures" featured on the reserves above and below the scroll. Perhaps the most British elements are the gillies and other blossoms that flank the scroll and enliven the Chinese ground pattern

Mason's earliest Chinoiserie patterns display a sensitive rendering of traditional figure groups that is exchanged for a more casual bravado in later patterns. Perhaps the preference for one or the other could serve as a sort of personality test for collectors.