Fluted Cup with Dragon Handle (early 1300s): Art, History and Details

Fluted Cup with Dragon Handle (early 1300s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Very thinly potted, the subtly lobed body of this cup is almost translucent. The thin, slightly opaque, light greenish glaze lends a sugary shine. Applied elements, including the handle, beaded borders, and sculptural floret, are constructed and glazed with the same materials as the body, providing a seamless blend of form and decorative embellishment. The result is an evocative reminder of slightly earlier silver cups, also created in the form of flowers. This pristine, natural construction is challenged, however, by the archaic dragon that acts as the handle. Borrowed from the decoration found on much earlier bronzes, this added form illustrates the eclecticism of the Yuan, the attempt to blend present vision with interest in the past.

Object facts

• Title: Fluted Cup with Dragon Handle
• Date: early 1300s
• Culture: China, Jiangxi Province, Jingdezhen kilns, Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: Glazed porcelain, Qingbai (bluish-white) ware
• Dimensions: Diameter: 9 cm (3 9/16 in.); Overall: 6 cm (2 3/8 in.)
• Collection: China - Yuan Dynasty
• Department: Chinese Art
• Accession number: 1964.163

A detail from the museum

Clay beading divides the cup's interior into six foliate panels with a six-petaled flower at the junction of the beaded lines.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E., and Wai-kam Ho. Chinese Art Under the Mongols: The Yüan Dynasty, 1279-1368. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art; [distributed by the Press of Case Western Reserve University], 1968.
• Medley, Margaret. Yüan Porcelain and Stoneware. London: Faber, 1974.
• Catalogue of the Severance and Greta Millikin Collection. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1990.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.