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Lot Essay
The Imperial kilns during the Xuande reign produced some of the most innovative, technically challenging, and visually attractive vessels in the history of ceramics. One of the most successful innovations was the combined technique of underglaze-blue painting and overglaze iron-red enamels, with the present cup being one of the best examples testifying to such achievement.
Only five other Xuande-marked stem cups of this design are known. Three are in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, as recorded in ‘Ming-jia’ Gugong ciqi tulu, vol. 2, Taipei, 1962, pp. 194-195, one of which is illustrated in the Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, pp. 222-223, no. 84 (fig. 1). The fourth is in the Tianminlou Collection, illustrated in Chinese Porcelain-The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Part II, Hong Kong, 1987, no. 6. The fifth is illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, p. 179, fig. 185, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2013, lot 3029.
Xuande-marked stem cups of this size and shape, are also decorated in reverse, with the mythical sea creatures in iron red on a ground of underglaze-blue waves, such as the example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 255, no. 231 (fig. 2); another in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Shanghai Bowuguan cangpin yanjiu daxi: Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, no. 3-51; and a third in the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated in Ming Porcelain, London, 1978, no. 63.
The design of nine mythical creatures is discussed by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 128, no. 4:13, where the author notes that the creatures can be found in Shan Hai Jing (Classic of the Seas and Mountains), a book completed in the Han dynasty by Liu Xiang and his son, revised and illustrated by Guo Pu in the Eastern Jin dynasty.
Only five other Xuande-marked stem cups of this design are known. Three are in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, as recorded in ‘Ming-jia’ Gugong ciqi tulu, vol. 2, Taipei, 1962, pp. 194-195, one of which is illustrated in the Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, pp. 222-223, no. 84 (fig. 1). The fourth is in the Tianminlou Collection, illustrated in Chinese Porcelain-The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Part II, Hong Kong, 1987, no. 6. The fifth is illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, p. 179, fig. 185, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2013, lot 3029.
Xuande-marked stem cups of this size and shape, are also decorated in reverse, with the mythical sea creatures in iron red on a ground of underglaze-blue waves, such as the example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 255, no. 231 (fig. 2); another in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Shanghai Bowuguan cangpin yanjiu daxi: Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, no. 3-51; and a third in the Cleveland Museum of Art, illustrated in Ming Porcelain, London, 1978, no. 63.
The design of nine mythical creatures is discussed by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 128, no. 4:13, where the author notes that the creatures can be found in Shan Hai Jing (Classic of the Seas and Mountains), a book completed in the Han dynasty by Liu Xiang and his son, revised and illustrated by Guo Pu in the Eastern Jin dynasty.