Beaker & saucer, Qianlong c.1745, with the arms of Cunningham
A finely potted and painted beaker & saucer of fine white porcelain, Qianlong c.1745, with the arms of Cunningham of Drumquassell in Scotland, ordered through the Swedish East India Company.
It seems most probable that the service was made for Colonel Thomas Cunningham (1691-1759), son of Thomas Cunningham of Crail in Scotland who settled in Sweden in 1659, becoming a merchant and burgess of Stockholm. His son was born in Stockholm in 1691 and served in the army as Master of the Ordinance in Finland. He was ennobled in 1747, later becoming Colonel of the Royal Swedish Artillery.
A damaged cup and saucer in the Gothenburg Historical Museum, No. 19.263 (illustrated in CAP volume 1, p.300). This beaker and saucer will be illustrated in the revised first volume.
Reference : Howard, David S.; Chinese Armorial Porcelain, Volume I, p. 300
Condition : Two or three tiny hairlines at rim of saucer (within decoration) and longer hairline at side of beaker - all now consolidated and all virtually invisible.
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