This small wine cup is delicately painted in blue and enamel colours with a rose bush (meigui) issuing from rockwork, bamboo and insects. The reverse has a five-character couplet which reads: Busai qianzhong jin, dufang yinian hong. The inscription could be translated as follows: “Unlike the thousands of flowers which blossom ephemerally (the rose) alone remains red throughout the years”.

The Percival David Collection now in the British Museum has a complete set of these wine cups (PDF.815a-1). The translation above has been taken from Rosemary Scott’s revised edition (1991) of Lady David’s original catalogue of 1958.

Literature: Anthony du Boulay, The Duberly Collection of Chinese Art at Winchester College (Winchester, 2019), p. 107

Provenance: Bequeathed as part of the Duberly Collection, 1978; purchased by Major Montagu and Lady Eileen Duberly from Bluett & Sons, 17 June 1959 (£32)

Location: Treasury, Gallery 2