CUP: KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722); CUP STAND: KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

Wine cup and cup stand sets from the Kangxi period represent some of the finest porcelain made by the Imperial kilns during this period. The cup is finely potted and delicately applied with openwork handles, while the cup stand is carved in varying layers of relief to depict two dragons emerging from waves confronted on a circular platform for holding the cup.

Although similar examples are known, it is very rare to find a cup stand decorated in famille verte enamel rather than monochrome. Compare a yellow-enamelled cup and cup stand of the same design in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (fig. 2); a single yellow-enamelled cup in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong: Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 164, no 147; a pair of yellow-enamelled cups sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2009, lot 1629; and a single yellow-enamelled cup stand in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 79.