The pure white jade with a refined lustre is in deep rounded form, the exterior carved with overlapping bands of lotus petals, rising from a short round correspondingly lobed foot. It is meticulously decorated with a total of seven benevolent-looking Buddhas on alternate petals, and finely incised with Buddhist-related scripts in neat kaishu on the remaining petals.
The story goes that Emperor Qianlong once ordered the production of jade monk-bowls according to the one he saw in Kaiyuan Monastery in Suzhou.

近羊脂青白玉，晶瑩溫潤。缽作一盛開的蓮花狀，圓形圈足。圓形外腹壁於每隔一個蓮花瓣上，浮雕一尊坐蓮佛像，皆面目慈祥。佛像之間的蓮花瓣則以楷書陰刻《七佛傳法偈》，末署「乾隆丙午秋御筆」，工藝精細巧究。
相傳乾隆二十二年，帝南巡到蘇州，見開元寺所供佛缽，大為讚賞，後命良工仿製成玉缽，供於宮內佛堂。

7.2cm high; 10.4cm mouth diameter; 7cm foot diameter