A rare famille-verte ‘date plum and butterfly’ cup, Mark and period of Kangxi

拍品描述

the base with a six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle Diameter 6.7 cm, 2⅝ in. The present cup represents the very zenith of wucai ('five colour') enamelling at the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century. Perfected under the careful watch of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1722), the painterly enamels of the present cup possess a paradoxical combination of simplicity and complexity. Softly applied like an imperial ink painting unfolding across its surface, with a careful blend of colours and attention to the finest details, the present cup stands as a testimony to the technological advancements and artistic prowess of Jingdezhen's imperial potters. In form, quality and compositition, the present cup is also closeley related to the famous group of imperial wares known as 'month' cups. Extremely light and fine to the point of translucency, the cup is identified as an imperial product even before considering the freely drawn reign mark to its base. To date, no other examples of this form and reign mark appear to survive featuring the present design. Compare a closely related pair of cups of this design with apocryphal Chenghua marks and recessed bases from the Meiyintang Collection, sold most recently at Zhongxuan Shanghai, 26th April 2026, lot 569, and illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 2010, vol. 4, pt. II, pl. 1742, where the author identifies the fruits as date plums (Diospyros lotus); and another cup of Kangxi mark and period and recessed base, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 28th November 1979, lot 144 to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong. Also compare other palm-sized gems of this period featuring related wucai designs, including a pair of cups of related foot and rim but wider profile, featuring orchids and butterflies in the Fondation Baur, Geneva, in John Ayers, The Baur Collection. Chinese Ceramics, vol. 4, Geneva, 1974, cat. nos A601 and A602; and among the finest examples of this group: a rounded conical bowl from the Barbara Hutton Collection featuring butterflies and red berries, sold three times in our rooms, most recently in our Hong Kong rooms, 27th April 2003, lot 188.

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