Lennard Cup
- Gallery: Room 95
- Culture: Ming dynasty
- Made in: Jingdezhen (Mount European)
- Date: 1522-1566 (porcelain); 1569 (1560-1570 silver mounts made in London)
- Object type: bowl, mount
- Materials: porcelain; silver
- Museum number: PDF.695
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is the Lennard Cup, a porcelain bowl adorned with silver-gilt mounts and a cover. The exterior is incised with lotus scrolls, while the interior features a hare in reverse against a serene landscape painted in underglaze cobalt blue. The base bears a Chinese inscription, "changming fugui," meaning "long life, riches, and honours."
This remarkable object was made in Jingdezhen during the Ming dynasty, around 1522–1566. It was later mounted in London around 1569–1570. The silver-gilt monogram and hallmarks reveal it to be a fine English piece. The leopard’s head and lion passant mark it as London-made with pure silver.
Once owned by Samuel Lennard, it is the earliest known dated blue-and-white porcelain with a metal mount.
See it in person
Lennard Cup is on display in Room 95 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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