judging from the description is for decoration only but the graphic on them is from the Compass School of Feng Shui.

There are a few "schools" of Feng Shui. The main ones are the "Form School" and the "Compass School".

Basically the Form school based it's principles on the landscape/surroundings around them and what energy is associated with it. The Compass School does do the same but it focused/emphasised on using a compass to figure out what room was best for luck, etc....

The plate is a picture of the compass (also called a Luopan) used many thousands of years ago and probably still in use today by some of the Masters of Feng Shui in China.

The rings around the compass aren't just for decoration. They hold a special meaning. In the picture of the plate, the YinYang symbol is where the compass is where the needle well is. The rings from inwards to outwards are:

1. The Eight Trigrams.

2. Knotted cord figures. These are the numbers 1 to 9.

3. The 12 Earthly branches. This can relate to the 12 hours of the day, 12 double hours of the day, 12 months of the year or the Chinese zodiac signs.

4. 24 Directions or Mountains which are used in the Flying Star Feng Shui.

5. 24 Seasonal Ch'i.

6. 60 Sexagenary characters which are called the 60 dragons.

7. 360 degrees of a compass is the outer most ring.

I'm not sure whether you wanted to know all that but you got it anyway! :-) I've never used one of these compasses before. I have only seem them in books. The Compass School is highly technical and relies heavily on mathematics. Unless you are a Master, I wouldn't even attempt it.

Hope this helps. :-)