A rare Chinese Export blue and white 'Europa and the bull' coffee pot and cover, early 18th century. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2012

Octagonal with bun feet in European silver form, decorated with a Western landscape showing hunters beneath an elaborate border enclosing the mythological scene; 11½ in. (29 cm.) high (2). Estimate $15,000 - $25,000

Notes: Jorg and van Campen illustrate an example (Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, p. 275) alongside a Delft prototype, both based on silver models, noting that it was an early Chinese response to the new fashion of coffee-drinking that had arrived in Europe late in the 17th century. Another (restored) example was in the Ionides and then the Mottahedeh Collection and sold Sotheby's, New York, 19 October 2000, lot 92. The difficulty of achieving this form soon led to its replacement by smooth-sided conical pots with simpler spouts and handles and flat bases.

Christie's. English Pottery and Chinese Export Art, 28 January 2013, New York, Rockefeller Plaza.