Memento Mori porcelain cup and plate, 19th century
Height x cup diameter: 8.3 x 11.5 cm. Plate diameter: 18 cm. Total weight: 480 g.
Set consisting of a flared cup with a scalloped profile and gilded details, paired with a matching saucer featuring coordinated decoration.
Both pieces display, at their center, a skull and crossbones in the memento mori style, framed within an oval on a green background and surrounded by hand-applied gilded accents—a motif echoed along the borders.
Memento mori, Latin for “remember you must die”, was widely used in decorative arts throughout Western Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries as a symbolic reminder of the transience of life.