This small vessel with handles in the style of twisted ropes was probably intended for the scholar’s desk rather than the altar. The purity and glassy quality of the glaze on this piece has been described as “…oily to the touch and lustrous, with an impression of solidity or depth, like white jade or opaque white glass”.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.
