A set of six blue and white tobaccoleaf and butterfly soup dishes, Qing dynasty Qianlong (1736-95).

After a European design, possibly by the Swiss-Dutch bothanist, Maria Sybille Merian (1649-1717). Who in 1698 travelled to the Dutch West Indies, where she collected specimens and made drawings, which were published in Holland in 1705 as 'Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium'. The complicated botanical decoration in combination with the sophisticated boarders suggests that the design might have been executedcd by Cornelis Pronk.