Bronze Age Gold from Wales

Jug, hard-paste porcelain, double-walled with a plain white ovoid inner body, the outer skin pierced in a reticulated pattern, shaped rim, curved bamboo-form handle; enamelled chinoiserie decoration round foot, neck and on the reticulation, four shaped reserves round the neck, two painted with Chinese figures in a landscape with a case of jewellery and vessels, another with a phoenix-like bird, a butterfly and a flowering branch, the fourth round the top of the handle with flowers, the handle enamelled in brown with gilded and unpainted white ridges.

This jug was originally part of a large tea and coffee service with tray, the most fanciful model ever created at Sèvres. An example of the complete set, dated 1840 and made for Queen Marie-Amélie, is in the collection of the Louvre, Paris.