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Lot Essay
The present ‘chicken’ bowl reflects the admiration of the 18th century court for the doucai ‘chicken’ cups of the Chenghua reign (1465-1487). The theme of the decoration on this cup, the rooster, hen, and chickens, has been ripe with strong connections to Chinese civilization for millennia. Evidence for the domestication of chickens has been found in excavations in Anyang province, the Shang capital. In Chinese creation mythology, the chicken egg symbolizes the origin of all things. Historically, the rooster has been revered in Chinese culture, embodying qualities such as civil talent, military skill, courage, benevolence, and fidelity, and serving as a model for good character.
By the Xuande period of the early Ming dynasty, the rooster, hen, and chicken theme found favor in the imperial court, as evinced by a Xuande-period painting of this subject (attributed to the Xuande Emperor but now thought to be by a court painter), in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, no. 00002800000. Additionally, a Song dynasty painting of the same subject, also in the National Palace Museum, features a colophon written by the Chenghua Emperor in 1486. In this inscription, the emperor praises the hen for her nurturing and protective qualities. See R. Krahl, ed. The Emperor’s Broken China: Reconstructing Chenghua Porcelain, London, 1995, p. 22, fig. 1.
‘Chicken’ cups made in the Chenghua period are known for their fine porcelain and beautifully painted decoration and were consistently regarded by later generations as the most admired Chenghua porcelains. Yongzheng-period ceramicists tried to reproduce all aspects of these 15th-century pieces, particularly taking care to emulate the fine potting, soft glaze and delicate enamels of the Chenghua originals, while adding one new element to the design—an addition of black enamel. Although the tails of the roosters on Chenghua ‘chicken’ cups look black at a distance, the color is in fact created by using underglaze-blue enamel. In Kangxi ‘chicken’ cups, the tails are painted in black enamel, but due to the instability of the black enamel, it was covered in a clear pale green or purple glaze. By the Yongzheng period, a true glossy black enamel was developed and was used on the tails of the roosters, and was sometimes used on the paintings of the trees and rocks.
The present bowl belongs to a small group of doucai ‘chicken’ bowls, which are larger in size than the cups of the same decoration. Due to their larger size, they are decorated with a wider variety of plants than that found on the Chenghua prototypes, and include plantains, papyrus, and asters to fill the design. A very similar Yongzheng doucai ‘chicken’ bowl from the Wang Xing Lou collection, is illustrated in R. Jacobsen, Ye Peilan and Julian Thompson, Imperial Perfection: The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors, Kangxi – Yongzheng – Qianlong, Hong Kong, 2004, p.p. 126-29, no. 45.
By the Xuande period of the early Ming dynasty, the rooster, hen, and chicken theme found favor in the imperial court, as evinced by a Xuande-period painting of this subject (attributed to the Xuande Emperor but now thought to be by a court painter), in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, no. 00002800000. Additionally, a Song dynasty painting of the same subject, also in the National Palace Museum, features a colophon written by the Chenghua Emperor in 1486. In this inscription, the emperor praises the hen for her nurturing and protective qualities. See R. Krahl, ed. The Emperor’s Broken China: Reconstructing Chenghua Porcelain, London, 1995, p. 22, fig. 1.
‘Chicken’ cups made in the Chenghua period are known for their fine porcelain and beautifully painted decoration and were consistently regarded by later generations as the most admired Chenghua porcelains. Yongzheng-period ceramicists tried to reproduce all aspects of these 15th-century pieces, particularly taking care to emulate the fine potting, soft glaze and delicate enamels of the Chenghua originals, while adding one new element to the design—an addition of black enamel. Although the tails of the roosters on Chenghua ‘chicken’ cups look black at a distance, the color is in fact created by using underglaze-blue enamel. In Kangxi ‘chicken’ cups, the tails are painted in black enamel, but due to the instability of the black enamel, it was covered in a clear pale green or purple glaze. By the Yongzheng period, a true glossy black enamel was developed and was used on the tails of the roosters, and was sometimes used on the paintings of the trees and rocks.
The present bowl belongs to a small group of doucai ‘chicken’ bowls, which are larger in size than the cups of the same decoration. Due to their larger size, they are decorated with a wider variety of plants than that found on the Chenghua prototypes, and include plantains, papyrus, and asters to fill the design. A very similar Yongzheng doucai ‘chicken’ bowl from the Wang Xing Lou collection, is illustrated in R. Jacobsen, Ye Peilan and Julian Thompson, Imperial Perfection: The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors, Kangxi – Yongzheng – Qianlong, Hong Kong, 2004, p.p. 126-29, no. 45.