This pair of cups has a blue-and-white floral and landscape designed interior and a brown-glazed exterior.They were part of the 'Nanking Cargo', retrieved from the Geldermalse, a Dutch East India Company ship, wrecked in the South China Sea on its homeward journey with tea, blue and white porcelain and gold ingots.One hundred thousand tea and coffee cups with saucers were shipped annually to Holland at this time. Handles on cups became fashionable after 1760. ‘Batavia ware’ with brown-glazed exteriors, was exported to Europe in small quantities.
