This white-ground tea cup belongs to a Nonyaware dinner service. The decoration of 'famille rose' enamel pattern with the mythical phoenix amongst peony flowers, surrounded by the Eight Buddhist Emblems, was a popular design. A Peranakan dinner service, like this set, can total many hundreds of pieces, with about eight different types of vessel shapes and sizes, including dessert ware. Large quantities of this kind of porcelain were made for export to Southeast Asia. Only the wealthiest Peranakan families could afford to place orders for large sets of matching porcelain for celebratory feasts. These impressive displays were laid out on the ‘tok panjang’ (literally ‘long table’) that was the formal dining table for special occasions.
