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View: Handle to right
Cup and Saucer
Chinese for export
1851 or 1852
Medium/Technique
Porcelain, enamel decoration, gilding
Credit Line
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Collection
Accession Number2013.1011.3a-b
DescriptionPainted with flowers and birds, inscribed in Hebrew with good wishes, and in Arabic characters with the date: 1268 in Islamic calendar which corresponds to 1850-1851. The plate features small medallions with portraits of a young woman holding a cup of wine. She may be a young bride for whom this ceramics set was made, probably a member of the prominent Sasson family who owned it.
InscriptionsIn Hebrew": "(To)Good health and life" and "Drink your wine with good heart" (a quotation from Ecclesiastes 9:7)
Provenance19th century, probably acquired by a member of the Sassoon family, India [see note]; until 1999, passed by descent within the family; April 9, 1999, Sassoon family collection sale, Sotheby’s, Tel Aviv, lot 11, to Charles and Lynn Schusterman, Tulsa; 2013, gift of Lynn Schusterman to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 25, 2013)
NOTE: The Sassoon family originated in Baghdad, and settled in India in the nineteenth century. Members of the family traveled widely and made their homes in China and England. It is not know for whom the service was made or by whom or where thee pieces were acquired.They are dated 1268 in the Hijri calendar (1851 or 1852).
NOTE: The Sassoon family originated in Baghdad, and settled in India in the nineteenth century. Members of the family traveled widely and made their homes in China and England. It is not know for whom the service was made or by whom or where thee pieces were acquired.They are dated 1268 in the Hijri calendar (1851 or 1852).