.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This rare blue and white cup depicts Su Jin, one of the ‘Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup’ celebrated in the Tang-dynasty poem Yinzhong baxian ge by the famous Tang poet Du Fu (AD 712-770). For a discussion of the poem and its popularity in the Qing dynasty see the footnote to the previous lot (1035), which depicts the ‘immortal’ Jiao Sui.
The present cup depicts the scholar Su Jin kneeling on a mat with an open sutra and a wine cup before him as he prays to a statue of Budai set upon a table in front of him. The back of the cup is inscribed with the corresponding verse from Du Fu’s poem followed by a seal shang:
Su Jin has made a vow of abstinence before the embroidered Buddha,
But in his drunkenness he often likes to abandon the ritual.
Like the previous lot, the present cup is exceedingly rare. A similar example from the collections of T. Bushell and T.Y. Chao was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 December 2009, lot 1895. More recently, an example formerly in the collections of Henry and Beatrice Goldschmidt and Mary Porter Walsh was sold in the sale In His Majesty’s Palm: Exquisite Imperial Porcelain from the Alan Chuang Collection; Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2023, lot 54. A rare doucai example with Su Jin, also from the Mary Porter Walsh Collection, was sold at Christie’s New York, 26 March 2010, lot 1397. A Kangxi-period famille verte version, without a mark, from the Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 12 December 2024, lot 1501.
The present cup depicts the scholar Su Jin kneeling on a mat with an open sutra and a wine cup before him as he prays to a statue of Budai set upon a table in front of him. The back of the cup is inscribed with the corresponding verse from Du Fu’s poem followed by a seal shang:
Su Jin has made a vow of abstinence before the embroidered Buddha,
But in his drunkenness he often likes to abandon the ritual.
Like the previous lot, the present cup is exceedingly rare. A similar example from the collections of T. Bushell and T.Y. Chao was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 December 2009, lot 1895. More recently, an example formerly in the collections of Henry and Beatrice Goldschmidt and Mary Porter Walsh was sold in the sale In His Majesty’s Palm: Exquisite Imperial Porcelain from the Alan Chuang Collection; Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 April 2023, lot 54. A rare doucai example with Su Jin, also from the Mary Porter Walsh Collection, was sold at Christie’s New York, 26 March 2010, lot 1397. A Kangxi-period famille verte version, without a mark, from the Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection, was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 12 December 2024, lot 1501.