A VERY RARE SUPERBLY PAINTED EARLY MING BLUE AND WHITE STEMCUP

THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Details

A VERY RARE SUPERBLY PAINTED EARLY MING BLUE AND WHITE STEMCUP
ENCIRCLED XUANDE SIX-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD

The cup with rounded sides rising to a flaring rim from a spreading solid stem, the exterior finely painted in dark blue tones shading almost to black in the 'heaped and piled' areas with two striding five-clawed dragons just above rocks and breaking waves around the base and stem, the interior painted with the nianhao within double lines below double lines around the rim (hairline, some polishing, possible crack to stem)
3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm.) diam., box

Lot Essay

Only one other stemcup with dragons around the cup and waves around the stem appears to have been published, illustrated by Sun-Baily, 'The E. S. Thornhill Bequest of Chinese Ceramics at the North Staffordshire Polytechnic', T.O.C.S., 1983-84, vol. 48, p. 77, pl. 15.

An example with dragons around the cup but waves or clouds around the stem from the Percival David and T. Y. Chao Collections now in the S. C. Ko Tianminlou Collection is illustrated in the Catalogue, vol. I, col. pl. 23. Another was included in the National Palace Museum Special Exhibition of Hsuan-te Wares, Catalogue, col. pl. 68.

(US$70,000-90,000)

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