This lobed cup has moulded flower petals rising from a base with four feet in the form of various flora and fauna (e.g. lotus buds, crab, snail). A robed figure standing at the centre with a fly whisk is probably Lu Dongbin, one of the Eight Immortals who represents scholars. A hole at the base of the figure connects to a hole at the base of the cup. These have been called ‘trick’ cups, or 'gong dao bei' (literally 'don’t be greedy cup'), as wine was apt to drain onto the lap of the heavy drinker! This was confirmed in an experiment, where the cups immediately drained their contents when three-quarters full. An x-ray of the cup shows that the mechanism for this dramatic effect was a tubular spout inside the figure.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.
