Canton porcelain plate depicting scenes from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, featuring figures on horseback wielding weapons

During the Jiaqing period, Canton porcelain frequently incorporated traditional Chinese stories and motifs featuring various figures. Literary classics, theatrical stories, and cultural figures that were popular before the Qing Dynasty were frequently depicted on porcelain. This plate depicts a dynamic scene from The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, with Lv Bu wielding his weapon (a halberd) and his adoptive father, Dong Zhuo, charging into battle on horseback. Porcelain with themes of figures on horseback wielding weapons was especially popular in the Western collectors' market, because Europeans were drawn to equestrian warfare themes and admired exquisite porcelain-painting techniques.