Lot Essay
Cf. a very similar stemcup from the Palmer Collection illustrated by Garner, Oriental Blue and White, pl. 2A and by E.E. Bluett, 'Chinese Works of Art in English Collections: The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. R.H.R. Palmer-I', Apollo, April 1958, pl. 160, fig. VIII(c) and later sold in these Rooms, 17 January 1989, lot 561, and now in the Tsui Museum of Art, illustrated by John Ayers in the Catalogue, 1990, no. 57. Cf., also, the very similar stemcup in the A. Brankston Collection illustrated by Jenyns, Ming Pottery and Porcelain, pl. 3c (iii)
Two other similar examples from the Collection of Mrs. Otto Harriman and the Collection of Lord Cunliffe were included in the O.C.S. Exhibition, Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, 14th to 19th Centuries, London, December 1953-January 1954, Catalogue nos. 11 and 12. Another stemcup of similar design, but with a different flower in the centre, was also included in the Philadelphia and Chicago exhibition, no. 8
Of the similar stemcups published, only one other is noted as having the character yu, 'precious', included in the slip-decoration on the interior; John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, no. 136 Based on the excavation in 1970 of the early Ming tomb of Wang Xingzu (1338-1371), outside the Zhonghuamen, Nanjing, dated to the 4th year of Hongwu (1371), it is now thought that these stemcups, previously dated to the Yuan period, could be dated anywhere from late Yuan to early Ming. Jan Fontein and Tung Wu, in Unearthing China's Past, Boston, 1973, illustrate a stemcup found in this excavation, fig. 114, p. 203, and describe it as being closest (stylistically) "to the Stephen Junkunc III cup included in the Philadelphia exhibition, no. 4"
Two other similar examples from the Collection of Mrs. Otto Harriman and the Collection of Lord Cunliffe were included in the O.C.S. Exhibition, Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, 14th to 19th Centuries, London, December 1953-January 1954, Catalogue nos. 11 and 12. Another stemcup of similar design, but with a different flower in the centre, was also included in the Philadelphia and Chicago exhibition, no. 8
Of the similar stemcups published, only one other is noted as having the character yu, 'precious', included in the slip-decoration on the interior; John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, no. 136 Based on the excavation in 1970 of the early Ming tomb of Wang Xingzu (1338-1371), outside the Zhonghuamen, Nanjing, dated to the 4th year of Hongwu (1371), it is now thought that these stemcups, previously dated to the Yuan period, could be dated anywhere from late Yuan to early Ming. Jan Fontein and Tung Wu, in Unearthing China's Past, Boston, 1973, illustrate a stemcup found in this excavation, fig. 114, p. 203, and describe it as being closest (stylistically) "to the Stephen Junkunc III cup included in the Philadelphia exhibition, no. 4"