LATE YUAN-EARLY MING DYNASTY, 14TH CENTURY

A slightly larger stem cup (11.7 cm. high) of similar form and with similar decoration to that of the present example is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. The Palace Museum stem cup has an additional plantain leaf band in underglaze blue around the stem, and the dragon design on the interior is described by the authors as having been molded. The stem cup is published in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 34 - Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 14, no. 12, where it is dated to the Yuan dynasty.

Two similar blue and white stem cups have previously been sold at Christie's: one at Christie’s Hong Kong, 24 October 1993, lot 718, and the other at Christie’s New York, 21 March 2002, lot 159. Both of these stem cups were purchased from Yamanaka & Co. Another blue and white stem cup from the collection of Stephen Junkunc, III, dated to the Yuan-early Ming dynasty, sold at Christie’s New York, 29 March 2006, lot 420.