A VERY FINE AND RARE SET OF TWELVE FAMILLE VERTE 'MONTH' CUPS

Details

A VERY FINE AND RARE SET OF TWELVE FAMILLE VERTE 'MONTH' CUPS
ENCIRCLED KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARKS AND OF THE PERIOD

Each delicately potted with flaring sides, the exterior painted and enamelled with emblematic flowers representing each month, the reverse of each inscribed with a seasonal couplet by a Tang poet terminating with a seal mark shang (appreciation) comprising:

The first month with a sparsely flowering bare-branched wintersweet tree (lamei) and lingzhi fungus.
Jinying cuinou dai chunhan, huangse huazhong you jiban.
Spring frost adorns the golden flowers and the verdant stem. But tell me, just how many yellow blossoms flower at this time?

The second month with a flowering apricot tree (xinghua) and clumps of grass among rocks.
Qingxiang he suyu, jiase chu qingyan.
After the fragrance of the evening rain,
the rising sun enhances the beauty of the flowers in the mists.

The third month with a luxuriant blossoming peach tree (taohua) growing from a grassy plane.
Fenghua xinshe yan, shijie jiuchun nong.
The swallow returns when the blossoms sway in the breeze,
the farmer returns to his field in this season late in Spring.

The fourth month with flowering peony bushes (moudan) among rockwork.
Xiaoyan yuanfen jinzhang lu, muxiang shenre yutang feng.
The radiant peony is worthy of the Immortals' dew,
Its fragrance is carried on breezes from the palatial halls.

The fifth month with a flowering pomegranate tree (shiliu) bearing yellow fruit with wild flowers growing to its right.
Luse zhulian ying, xiangfeng fenbi zhe.
The reflection of dew drops is like a curtain of beads,
the scented breeze is sheltered by the chalk wall.

The sixth month with a pair of mandarin ducks swimming in a lotus pond (he) with a kingfisher in flight overhead.
Geng shi nizhong yu, xincheng luxia zhu.
Like jade, the lotus root is untainted by muddy waters,
the gathering dew drops are like pearls on its heart-shaped leaves.

The seventh month with four large clumps of flowering cymbidium orchids (lanhua) sprouting from a rocky terrain.
Guangdian qingxiang fa, gaotai yuan chuiyin.
The subtle perfume of orchids pervades the great hall
as music plays on the lofty terraces.

The eighth month with a flowering cassia tree (guihua) with spreading branches over a hare to the left.
Zhisheng wuxian yue, huaman ziran qiu.
The branches grow for a seemingly endless age,
it is Autumn now they are in flower.

The ninth month with tall flowering chrysanthemum (juhua) and begonia to the right.
Qianzai baiyi jiu, yisheng qingnu xiang.
It was an aeon ago when the white-robed attendant served wine to Tao Yuanming; the fragrance of the chrysanthemum, like that of the Fairy of Frost has endured ever since.

The tenth month with flowering Chinese rose (yuegui) by low rockwork with three insects in flight.
Busui qianzhong jin, dufang yinian hong.
Unlike the myriad blossoms that flower and wither,
the rose alone is perennially red.

The eleventh month with a flowering prunus shrub (mei) and narcissus and bamboo, making up three of the 'Four Gentlemen' sprouting from rockwork.
Suyan xuening shu, qingxiang feng manzhi.
The prunus blossom is pure like snow on the tree,
Its subtle fragrance is like a breeze amongst its branches.

The twelfth month with narcissus (shuixian) and a single rose in front of a garden rock.
Chunfeng longyu lai qingzhou, yeyue lingbo shang dati.
At the break of day, the spring breeze caresses gently.
By the light of the moon, the narcissus are like the waters that flow Heavenward.

2 3/4 in. (6.5 cm.) diam., stands, box (12)

Provenance

Paul and Helen Bernat, sold in Hong Kong, 15 November 1988, lot 22.

Literature

The Tsui Museum of Art, 1991, pl. 103.
The Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics, vol. IV, pl. 105a.

Lot Essay

The arrangement of the month cups in the present order is based on extensive research based on textual and pictorial evidence detailed by Yang Boda in his introduction to the Tsui Museum of Art, Chinese Ceramics, IV, pp. 63, 64, wehre he uses as a refernce the Kangxi Encyclopedia of Flowers, the month chart in Pingshi, the Huayueling. There are many clear-cut identifications for some of the months which certain flowers represent: prunus, peach, peony, pomegranate, lotus, cassia tree, chrysanthemum and wintersweet are inextricably tied to customs and seasonal observances within the months in which they flourish. The other flowers are less specific as there is more than one flower identified with the seventh month; in the second month, according to the Qunfangpu (Flower Manual), the crab-apple and magnolia also flourish; the last text along with the Huajing (Mirror of Flowers) make no mention at all of any flowers in the tenth month whilst the narcissus (in the present context representing the twelfth month) together with the wintersweet also represents the twelfth month; but as both are depicted in these Kangxi 'month' cups and since the wintersweet belongs definitively to the first lunar month, the narcissus falls logically to the twelvth.

The design format of these cups with a pictorial composition on one side and a poetic inscription ending in a seal mark on the other is inspired by the long tradition in classical painting and was an innovation of the Kangxi period. This format was to later gain currency and renown in the group of highly exclusive wares known as "Guyuexuan" in the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns.

Dr. K.S. Lo donated a complete set of twelve month cups to the Hong Kong Museum of Art. These were included in the Exhibition of The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Qing Ceramics, 1984, Catalogue, no. 15; another set is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics, The Idemitsu Collection, pl. 221; compare also with a set in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated and discussed by R. Scott, Fine Porcelain and Delicate Brushwork, Orientations, November 1986, pp. 22-35; figs. 2-2b; and another set of twelve in Beijing is illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, p. 65. A complete set was last sold in these Rooms, 18 March 1991, lot 543.

For a discourse on flowers in Chinese art, see W. Perceval Yetts, Notes on Flower Symbolism in China, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, January, 1941.

(US$600,000-700,000)

More from The Jingguantang Collection

View All