A scarce famille rose Chinese export porcelain bourdaloue, the cover with a spearhead border, floral sprays and finial over the body with a similar border and flower sprays, the handle with a heart shaped thumb-piece, 18thC, 23cm wide. Often mistaken for a sauce boat, a bourdaloue is actually a woman's portable urinal. In widespread use throughout Europe from about 1710-1850, the earliest examples were of Dutch delftware. The English referred to them as "coach pots" or "slippers". Chinese Export bourdaloues tend to have covers, while European ones do not. It is unclear when or how the bourdaloue got its name, but one explanation attributes it to Père Louis Bourdaloue (1632-1704), a Jesuit priest at the court of Louis XIV whose long sermons necessitated this discreet and practical device.