This porcelain cup is thickly moulded with a scalloped rim and has a flat base. Artworks applied on each side include a phoenix beneath pine and prunus branches (facing) and two dragons facing each other surrounded by rocks and a prunus tree (reverse). More recently, it has been suggested, silver cups of the late 16th-17th century, one in particular with deer in a grotto, may have provided another source of inspiration for Dehua cups of this type.Dehua, located on the southeast coast of Fujian province, is well known for its production of white porcelain, known to Europeans as 'blanc de Chine'. The earliest Dehua porcelain was produced as early as the 14th century but the production and quality of these porcelain peaked around the 17th and 18th centuries.
