It is highly unusual to find Yuzhi winecups of this particular shape from the Kangxi reign. This form is more commonly associated with 'month cups' decorated in blue and white or in the famille verte palette of the same period. Small enamelled cups are less well-known although a number of Yongzheng marked coloured-ground cups with straight sides or broader mouth rims are published such as those in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, and included in the exhibition of Ch'ing Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of the Imperial Ateliers, Catalogue, nos. 64, 65, 68, and 70. For an example of another bell-shaped Kangxi winecup enamelled with flowering prunus on a ruby-red ground, formerly in the collection of Mr and Mrs Paul Bernat, now in Boston Museum of Fine Arts, see Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha Series, vol. 11, pl. 84.

Compare with a famille rose yellow-ground dish bearing Kangxi yuzhi mark decorated with a lotus scroll in the National Palace Museum, Taibei, included in their Special Exhibition, Imperial Enamel Ware of Qing Dynasty, 1979, Catalogue, no. 4; and to related bowls included in their Special Exhibition of Ch'ing Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of the Imperial Ateliers, Catalogue, nos. 3 and 4; and the bowl from the Paul and Helen Bernat Collection, sold in Hong Kong 15 November 1988, lot 213. By comparison, the present lot is much finer in that the flowers and leaves are rendered in a naturalistic fashion, with curled and even worm eaten leaves that have begun to discolour. The fine penciled details in black enamels and careful control of the pink enamelled details makes this yuzhi cup one of the finest and most successful patterns within this group.

Compare also with a famille rose yellow-ground Beijing enamelled tripod censer decorated with lotus and peonies bearing a Kangxi yuzhi mark, sold in Hong Kong, 21 May 1980, lot 267, where the artists have tried to represent the lotus leaves in a true-to-life manner but less successfuly than on the present cup.