This beaker is enamelled with a flower spray in famille noire enamels reserved on a black ground in each panel, with an iron-red scroll border. The interior has yellow and green scrolls above, and blue, yellow and aubergine flowerheads below.

The use of enamels on a black background is known as famille noire. At the beginning of the 20th century famille noire was the most expensive porcelain in the world when represented in tall vases. Since then it has been proved that many of them were either new at the time or were genuine vases with simple decoration which had been stripped and redecorated. Most of these can now be seen in major museums in Europe and particularly in the USA. However, tea wares and beakers such as this have shown us what genuine famille noire should look like.

Literature: Anthony du Boulay, The Duberly Collection of Chinese Art at Winchester College (Winchester, 2019), p. 109

Provenance: Bequeathed as part of the Duberly Collection, 1978; purchased by Major Montagu and Lady Eileen Duberly from John Sparks, 3 March 1952 (£150)

Location: Treasury, Gallery 2