Soup plate, 9.875 inches diameter. Brown transfer with polychrome clobbering. Impressed maker's mark for W. T. Copeland & Sons. The impressed M82 indicates a manufacture date of March 1882. Painted pattern number 2/1817. The border, known as "Arabesque," is seen on all the patterns in this series. This pattern features a horizontal scroll with rolled edges. The scroll contains a scene of a single sailboat holding one person on choppy seas with other vessels in the distance. Bamboo branches and reeds frame the view. Behind the scroll there is a flowering branch on which two birds are sitting. Above and to the right of the scroll is a butterfly and a different insect.

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.