Artist: Yutian 雨田

Material: Porcelain, overglaze mineral pigments (新彩)

Technique: Hand-painted Dunhuang-inspired overglaze decoration

Height: 3.2 cm Diameter: 9.1 cm

The interior of this cup reveals itself slowly. Against a deep, dark ground flecked with gold, a Baoxiang flower unfolds at the centre: layer upon layer of scrolling petals, radiating outward in turquoise, lapis blue, cinnabar red, and burnished gold. A single turquoise jewel sits at the heart.

The Baoxiang flower is not a flower found in nature. It is a sacred composite, invented by Chinese Buddhist artists over a thousand years ago, combining elements of the lotus, peony, and palmette into a single, idealised form. In the painted caves of Dunhuang, Baoxiang flowers appear on ceilings, haloes, and throne canopies, marking spaces of spiritual significance. They are the flowers of paradise, blooming where no earthly flower can grow.

Yutian has spent twenty-five years studying these painted caves and translating their imagery onto porcelain. In 2017, he became the first Jingdezhen artist to systematically bring Dunhuang's visual language onto ceramic surfaces, opening a new genre that has since been widely adopted across the city. This cup belongs to that body of pioneering work.

The rim carries a continuous wave border in turquoise and gold, drawn from the same Dunhuang decorative vocabulary. The exterior is left unadorned, its dark surface providing a counterpoint to the revelation within. Pick the cup up, look inside, and the mandala appears. Set it down, and it disappears again. The experience of this cup is sequential, intimate, and designed to reward attention.

Entirely hand-painted using overglaze mineral pigments (新彩) on a dark-bodied porcelain cup. No two are identical.