A ivory and silk Chinese riverboat with an elaborate superstructure and numerous figures on board. The hull faced with long strips of ivory. In a roofed central chamber on deck, its walls and doorways carved with intricate latticework, an official sitting at a table with a tea bowl, a vase of coral and baskets of fruit, facing a screen painted with flowers; along the sides of the room, three attendants and two seated women. Above, on a railed upper deck, an open-sided, roofed chamber, with an orchestra of seven players, and in front, an open area, with a drum-like canopy raised in the centre, two ranks of halberds and other standards, and a row of flowerpots with green foliage, the floors painted to simulate black and white tiles. In the enclosed stern, under a barrel-shaped roof, two figures operating a large oar mounted on metal wires that travel in a lateral slot; another, squatting figure preparing food, and a square rudder projecting at the rear. Openwork walls framing this area, from which rise poles supporting a flag, two banners and to lanterns. Towards the front of the main deck, seated in a porch, a man, a woman and an attendant, and outside under a canopy, two seated figures, one smoking a pipe, and on the prow, another holding a large flag. Two anchors lying on the deck. Round the sides of the boat, six figures with long fending poles. All the figures, apparently made of clay, variously painted in blue, red and green. The boat resting on a European red-painted wood stand, fitted with slots at one side in which the mainmast is stored.

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume III.