This belongs to a rare group of precious wares mounted and decorated with fired gold by a Parisian goldsmith between about 1720 and 1723. Whilst Dehua beakers were plentiful, saucers were not and it was therefore necessary to match them, in this case with a Saint Cloud soft-paste porcelain saucer. An example in the British Museum has a Japanese, Arita, saucer.

Similar pieces can be identified in the inventory of the Regent, Phillippe II, Duc d’Orléans and are amongst the most highly valued pieces listed. Another beaker and saucer ‘en porcelaine blanche piquée et garnie d’or’ is in the inventory of the second wife of the Prince de Bourbon Condé, Princesse Caroline de Hesse Rhinefelds, of 28 June 1741. Perhaps only about twenty examples of this group exist and where their provenance is known it leads back to a small royal coterie.

Condition:
Possibly missing mounts to the foot of the beaker.

Provenance:
Eila Grahame Collection

This item has been sold