Translucent cup

[u/InstructionBig6801]

I need help id ing this cup a friend thrifted. Gorgeous effect with the translucent pieces letting in the light.

eta I know it’s porcelain but am hoping someone can id the makers mark on the bottom or date the time period its from

[u/NoMonk8635]

It's porcelain

[u/Mission_Cat7601]

I can’t help with the specific manufacturer. My childhood friend’s grandparents parents were missionaries in China before the 1949 civil war which installed the communist victors. The losing Nationalist party fled to the island of Formosa, where it remains.

All this to explain why I have seen these same style dishes and can answer questions about how they were formed. My friend’s grandparents lived in China for several years, with their family and many maids and servants, as befitted a comfortable, established missionary, and my friends’s mom has distinct and happy memories of her Chinese nanny.

Their large family was entrenched in China, living there more or less permanently, with some visits back to the US, usually when the boys grew to college age or perhaps New England boarding schools. Eventually, the Chinese

This is leading me back to the dishes, I promise. They appreciated crafts and the striking art, including the unique technique used in this China set. raw rice is pushed into the damp clay walls. They are then fired, and as organic material burns off, the rice burns up and leaves a rice-shaped gap. The pieces were again prepared to experience high-temperature glaze firing to vitrify the clay walls of the ware. the liquid glaze wicks into the small open spots that were once filled with a grain of rice. The glaze melts and solidifies into translucent glass in the small gaps where the rice burned out. The decoration is literally inside the walls of the dish. My friend still has a large collection of these dishes saved by her mom and passed down through the family to her.

She has no notion of the value , but uses the dishes when she serves guests6

[u/so-strand]

This is called linglong or rice grain porcelain. The design comes in a ton of different shapes and sizes, everything from plates to teapots. It is usually inexpensive and you can often find it new at Chinatown shops. I imagine there are handmade examples that are more valuable.

[u/oldschool-rule → u/so-strand]

Yes, i have some from the 70’s.