This cup is thickly potted. It remains unclear whether it was wheel-thrown or moulded. Cups such like this were made in a range of sizes - from very small thimble-shaped ones to the size of this example. They may have been the precursor of a deep beaker-type known as ‘chocolate cups’ in the West.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.
