A FINE AND RARE MING-STYLE DOUCAI 'CHICKEN' CUP

KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

Details

A FINE AND RARE MING-STYLE DOUCAI 'CHICKEN' CUP
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
The cup is finely potted with slightly rounded sides rising from the recessed base to a gently everted rim. The exterior is delicately painted in pale underglaze-blue wash, yellow, shades of green, and iron-red with a continuous scene depicting two groups, each of a cockerel, a hen and three chicks, divided by camellia and day lilies growing from ornamental rocks. The scene is framed within double-line borders around the foot and below the rim. The base with an apocryphal six-character Chenghua mark within a double-rectangle
3 1/4 in. (8.1 cm.) diam., box

Provenance

Sold at Christie's Paris, 21 December 2009, lot 276

Brought to you by

Nick Wilson

chinese@christies.com +852 2760 1766

Lot Essay

The present cup with its additional insects in flight appears to be unique. This cup belongs to a group known as 'chicken' cups that were produced in the early Qing period to emulate those that were produced in the Ming dynasty Chenghua period (1465-1487). Compare Qing examples, a Kangxi-marked pair of cups from the Edward T. Chow Collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 25 November 1980, lot 138; one in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated together with the Chenghua original, Catalogue, section 5, no. A749, pl. XIV; and another from the Ma Foundation, illustrated by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London 2001, p.159, fig.2, together with Chenghua and Yongzheng versions of the cup.

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