This unusual stem-cup seems to relate most closely amongst published comparables to the bowl in the Ardebil Shrine, decorated on the interior with two birds on a crab-apple bush, and on the exterior with three similar bird and bush-sprays; see J. A. Pope, op. cit., pl.63. See also the stem-bowl in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the gift of Mr and Mrs Stanley Herzman, 1990, formerly in the Collection of F.B.C. Bravington, illustrated by S. Valenstein in her Catalogue, no.68; and the related stem-cup in the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated by Lion-Goldschmidt, op.cit., pl.69. The style of painting closely resembles that found on a small bowl dated to the late Chenghua period and excavated from the 'quality-control' spoilheaps at the Zhushan Imperial kiln site at Jingdezhen, exhibited in Hong Kong, A Legacy of Chenghua, 1993, Catalogue, no. C58; and see also the stem-cup of similar proportions to the present lot, ibid., no. A8

Another stem-cup from this period, but painted with 'The Three Friends', was sold in these Rooms 10 June 1991, lot 121