Lot Essay
It is very rare to find a 'chicken' bowl of this size and with such naturalistic painting following a fifteenth century design. Cf. another doucai bowl also with a Yongzheng mark in the Umezawa Kinenkan Museum, illustrated in The Panoramic Views of Chinese Patterns, pl. 75.
More common are Yongzheng-marked doucai winecups of the same subject matter. This group of cups usually follow the Chenghua original in shape but not in interpretation. Compare the cup formerly in the collection of Mrs. Walter Sedgwick and included in the O.C.S. exhibition of the Arts of the Ch'ing Dynasty, London, 1964, Catalogue no. 194, where the roosters are also painted with elaborate ruffled tails similar to that on the present lot.
More common are Yongzheng-marked doucai winecups of the same subject matter. This group of cups usually follow the Chenghua original in shape but not in interpretation. Compare the cup formerly in the collection of Mrs. Walter Sedgwick and included in the O.C.S. exhibition of the Arts of the Ch'ing Dynasty, London, 1964, Catalogue no. 194, where the roosters are also painted with elaborate ruffled tails similar to that on the present lot.