Imperial Wine Cups at the Wallace Collection

Imperial Wine Cups 18th century, China These spectacular gold wine cups were decorated with pearls, precious stones and kingfisher feathers. They were made for the Qianlong Emperor. He used them to celebrate the Chinese New Year during a ceremony which took place in the Forbidden City, Beijing. Only four examples of such Imperial cups exist and two of them can be found in the Wallace Collection. The other two are in the palace museums in Beijing and Taipei.