Lidded dish, 11.25 x 8 x 5 inches. Brown transfer. Impressed maker's mark for W. T. Copeland & Sons. Impressed M82 indicates a manufacture date of March 1882. The border, known as "Arabesque," is seen on all the patterns in this series. This platter has a central image consisting of a scroll with furled ends decorated and containing a scene featuring a body of water, perhaps the Nile river, with water lilies in the foreground. In the distance is a land mass on which a domed mosque and a minaret can be seen. A tall bamboo on the left frames this view. A vertical scroll with a flower is behind the large scroll and all is overlaid on several flowering prunus branches. The lid features three motifs placed evenly around the rim. The largest is an image featuring two cartouches superimposed over a branch of blossoms and leaves. The smaller cartouche is a quatrefoil contained within a circle and both are filled with geometric designs. The larger cartouche is fan-shaped with a curling left edge and has an image of a boat on the water at the bottom of a rocky cliff with a domed building and minaret at the top. The other two motifs consist of a flowering prunus branch and a crane in flight.

W. T. Copeland was the only son of William Copeland, partner of Josiah Spode in the Stoke Potteries, of Staffordshire and of Portugal Street, London. He succeeded his father as head of the porcelain firm in Portugal Street, London and eventually bought out the interests of the Spode family in the business in the Potteries and London. He ran the business in partnership with Thomas Garrett between 1833 and 1847. After the dissolution of the Copeland and Garrett partnership, it traded as W.T. Copeland and Sons. (1847-1976). In 1866 Copeland was appointed china and glass manufacturer to the Prince of Wales.