Drinking Vessels worthy of Cesar

飲茶聊天 yǐn​ chá ​liáo ​tiān​  “To talk over a cup of tea” (Chinese idiom) “Have you had a cup of tea, since teatime ?”.. jingle from an old British TV advertisement.
While YiXing teapots hold the highest interest for most collectors .. I also enjoy a large collection of  Tea Cups.  The cup enjoys the most personal interaction with the tea drinker.
Purchased in DongGuan from Mrs. Yang,  early 2005,  two sets of 4 cups that are simply Biblical in there ability to enhance a good “chin-wag”.
I’m not 100% sure of the cost, that is less important than their intrinsic value. Mr. Yang just returned from a buying trip to Jiang Xi. A large shipment was on its way, he hand carried these two boxes .. I bought both there and then.
Individually unique, hand painted, workmanship and quality are first rate.  More importantly each is beautiful and a pleasure to hold and behold.
The egg-shell thickness and translucency of these cups add to their imparted pleasure. 
景德鎮 Jǐng​ dé​ zhèn​ Famous ceramics city in Jiang Xi province. Thx Dr. Gou for your help with this style of calligraphy.
  Jing De Zhen, famous as "The Chinaware Capital". As long as 2000 years ago, in the Han Dynasty, some ancient kilns for pottery were built here. In the Tang Dynasty, people had been able to produce chinawares by heating. The wares are said to be: as white as a jade, as clear as a mirror, as thin as a sheet of paper and as sweet sounding as a Qing (a Buddhist percussion instrument). Owing to the manufacturing level was much improved during the reign of Song emperor Jing De, the town was named Jing De Zhen. It's said its former name was Chengnan, pronounced "china" by the Western people who used to export the porcelains from here to their countries. That's why the porcelain was called "chinaware". In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the place was so flourishing that taken as one of the 4 biggest towns of China.  (3 web picts)


  
These four are hand painted with slight variations on a common theme.
“In the style of” and marked: Emperor Yong Zheng. Qing dynasty 1722-1735.  Da Qing Yong Zheng Nian Zh.  These from the famous Blue Dragon pottery.