‘Chicken cup’ Jingdezhen, southeast China Qing dynasty, circa AD 1644-1700

Cups with designs of chickens made in the Chenghua period (AD 1464-1487) are celebrated as the finest and rarest specimens of Chinese ceramics and have been imitated ever since. This cup bears the reign mark of the Jiajing emperor (who reigned later on in the Ming dynasty, AD 1522-1566) on its base, but it was probably made at least a century later during the Qing dynasty. Porcelain, underglaze blue mark, overglaze polychrome enamel decoration. Bequeathed by Mr F. P. M. Schiller.