Tachikichi Blue and White Porcelain Cup with Scroll Pattern

A slim, cylindrical porcelain cup in a warm ivory glaze, decorated all the way round in cobalt blue. The design is an elegant repeating pattern of curling scrolls, tulip-like flowers, four-petal blossoms and fine dotted lines. The base carries the blue "TACHI KICHI" mark of the Kyoto ceramics house Tachikichi. It's a lovely size for green tea, sake or espresso, and it would also make a handsome pen or brush holder on a desk. The glaze and decoration are in good condition, with light wear to the unglazed foot ring.

Tachikichi is one of Japan's oldest tableware houses. It was founded in 1752, in the middle of the Edo period, as Tachibana-ya Kichibee, near the Shijō–Tominokoji crossing in the heart of Kyoto. In 1894 the eighth-generation owner renamed the business Tachikichi, and it still sells Japanese and Western-style ceramics today, more than 270 years later.