Used for ale, the blanc-de-chine mug or “gorge” from Dehua is created in three parts and is joined together at the neck and belly to create a globular form with a ribbed cylindrical neck. The potter decorated it with embossed flowers encircling the shoulder and chevrons around the foot. The shape originated in Germany in the 1500s and continued into the 1600s, when merchants imported them into England. Beginning in the 1680s, the same shape was created in English silver, glass, and tin-glazed earthenware; white salt-glazed stoneware by John Dwight of Fulham, England; red stoneware by the Elers brothers of Staffordshire, England; and stoneware made in Nottingham, England (B.99.26). When the English placed orders for porcelain from China, drawings or prototypes in pottery, glass, silver, pewter, or wood accompanied them. It has been suggested that a white salt-glazed mug by Dwight’s pottery was sent to Dehua to be copied in porcelain, producing the surviving examples that we know today. Interestingly, the terminal of the mug’s handle, rendered as a separate piece, was the Chinese potter’s misunderstanding of the construction of the original. It is plausible that a Fulham pottery mug was sent to China, as the handles on this Dehua mug and on an example by Dwight are quite similar. However, the Dehua mug’s handle was constructed with two pieces of clay, whereas the Dwight mug was made with one strip of clay and then pressed at the base with the tip of the handle flaring out, again referring to the Chinese potter’s misinterpretation. Moreover, the Dehua examples were not only imported to England, but also made their way to Holland, France, and quite possibly colonial America. English mug fragments attributed to John Dwight's pottery and from Nottingham were discovered in archaeological sites in Virginia.

Related examples: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Winterthur, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Victoria and Albert Museum, British Museum, and Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore.