Sweetmeat dish

Leaf-shaped brush washers from Dehua appear to have inspired the production of small cups for sherbet and hot beverages in Europe. The first examples were made at Meissen in 1711 in red grès (a type of earthenware), but later hard-paste white porcelain versions with tin-glazes were produced across Europe. They were a speciality of the manufactory at Doccia, Italy, where notable examples were made from 1766 until the end of the eighteenth century.