The Cup that Presses Against your Palm 明永乐青花压手杯

Many ceramic collectors have heard of the Cup that presses against your palm. There are three of them. They are all in the Old Palace Museum in Peking. These are very well known cups because it is often said that these are the only three Yongle B & W that bear the mark ‘Yongle Nin Zhi”. No other B & W of the Yongle period bears the same mark. Any other similar cups bearing the mark are fakes, so are other B & W wares with such a mark. To me, these are nothing but myths and they always remind me of the old Chinese saying: For those who sit deep inside a well, and comment that the sky is small, it does not mean that the sky is really small, it only means that their views are very much limited.

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