A PAIR OF DOUCAI CONICAL WINE CUPS, QING DYNASTY KANGXI PERIOD

• Lot Sold $85,000 (Hammer Price)
• $102,000 (Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium)

each with flaring sides rising from a short tapering foot, the exterior painted with a scene of Su Dongpo bowing to a large garden rock, while his attendant shades him with a banana leaf fan, in a continuous garden setting with wutong trees and bamboo, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with an apocryphal six-character Chenghua mark within a double circle, wood stands, fitted box
(4)

9.7CM

PROVENANCE
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 16 November 1973, lot 204
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 16 May 1977, lot 138
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 24 May 1979, lot 630
Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 13 November 1990, lot 338

LITERATURE
A smaller pair of doucai cups from the Edward T. Chow Collection, of this form and painted with the same subject, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong 19 May 1981, lot 558; and another pair, of the same size as the present cups but painted with boys at play in a fenced garden, is illustrated by Ayers, Chinese Ceramics, The Koger Collection, pls. 117 and 118

These winecups are evidently inspired by Chenghua winecups painted with similar scenes, although this conical form is a later innovation. Compare two fifteenth century rounded doucai cups included in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Special Exhibition of Ch'eng-hua Porcelain, 1977, Catalogue no. 2, with a recessed base, and no. 5, with a small footrim