Jingdezhen Hand-Painted Yongle-Style Blue-and-White Yashou Bei

The yashou bei, conventionally rendered in English as a press-hand cup, earned its name through touch. Its lightly everted rim settles against the open curve between thumb and forefinger, while the porcelain body becomes thicker toward the foot. The lowered center of gravity gives the small vessel a composed, reassuring weight in the hand.

The form carries an exceptional Ming story. The Palace Museum in Beijing preserves a Yongle blue-and-white press-hand cup from the Qing court collection and identifies it as the only Yongle imperial-kiln blue-and-white vessel currently known, whether handed down or excavated, to bear a reign mark. The museum cup measures 5.4 cm high with a 9.1 cm rim. At 5.4 cm high with a 9.4 cm rim, this contemporary Jingdezhen recreation follows the celebrated prototype at nearly the same full scale while allowing the small variation expected in a newly made vessel.

Hand-painted cobalt lotus scrolls encircle the exterior. Inside, two lions turn around a brocade ball containing the decorative four-character mark 永樂年製. The scene emerges as the tea recedes, bringing one of Ming porcelain's most storied cup designs back to its original scale of experience: a vessel small enough to settle naturally into the hand.

• Origin: Jingdezhen, Jiangxi, China
• Material: High-fired porcelain
• Craft: Hand-painted blue-and-white decoration under clear glaze
• Form: Yashou bei, or press-hand cup
• Motifs: Scrolling lotus, two lions and brocade ball
• Diameter: 9.4 cm / 3.7 in
• Height: 5.4 cm / 2.1 in
• Capacity: Approx. 135 ml / 4.6 oz
• Interior mark: Decorative four-character 永樂年製 mark
• Historical scale: Close full-scale contemporary recreation of the Palace Museum example