It may not be the equal of the trappings of palace officialdom, but the small mug has traveled half the globe, rubbing shoulders with two of the world's great cultures as it passed through more than two centuries of history, so that today it survives as a living footnote to the blurred history of cultural intercourse between East and West.
尋常小杯，貌不驚人，比不得深宮上苑的官窯器皿、御覽諸寶；但它們遍遊大半地球、揉合中西文明、歷經兩百餘年的身世，卻在廿世紀末的今天，為一段面貌模糊的中西交流史，作了活生生的註腳。