The cup and saucer are richly decorated with a lavender-brown ground, gilding, pewter and polychrome decoration comprising scrolls, clasps, palmettes and Greek key bands. The cup has a slightly splayed gilded fluted foot. Its flared mouth is painted on the inside with a frieze composed of a green foliate trail of blue forget-me-nots on a lilac ground. The gilded loop handle terminates at the top and bottom in palmettes. The saucer, its rim arched, has a moulded and gilded splayed foot.

On the cup two thick garlands of flowers, one composed of anemones and the other of narcissi, issue out of gilded sheaths seemingly suspended from clasps below the rim; they partly frame two polychrome heads painted on a maroon ground in imitation of antique cameos, named ‘ADONIS’ and ‘NARCISSE’ respectively. Separating the heads on the front is a lyre in pewter, below which is a gold label marked ‘OVIDE’, interrupting the Greek key band. On the saucer three heavy palm-leaf garlands alternate with three circular medallions containing attributes and labelled ‘ACANTHE’, ‘CISSOS’ and ‘SYRINX’; in the centre of the saucer on a maroon ground is a portrait head marked ‘OVIDE’, in imitation of an antique cameo.

The classical heads, all wearing laurel crowns, are accompanied by attributes: Adonis, who carries a quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder, is accompanied by a wild boar’s head and two arrows; Narcissus by an amphora from which water pours; Ovid by a parchment roll and a stylus. The motifs in the three named reserves on the saucer comprise acanthus foliage and a bowl of fruit for Acanthus, a tazza of berries and ivy leaves for Cissos (the Greek for ivy), and pan pipes and reeds for Syrinx.

Text adapted from French Porcelain: In the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London 2009