.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A number of similar examples of sets of enamelled cups and cup stands with variations on the current pattern are in the collections of the Beijing Palace Museum and the National Palace Museum.The motifs of bats, peaches, lotus, Shou characters and in some cases double gourds, indicate that these would almost certainly have been commissioned to commemorate an important birthday.
A cup and cover with an oval stand similarly enamelled with peaches and bats, Shou character roundels, and a composite floral border in the National Palace Museum, is illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, pp. 208-209, no. 105. Another example, also decorated with bats, peaches and Shou characters amidst flower scroll is in the Qing Court Collection, Beijing, illustrated in Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 43, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 197, no. 188.
Compare to a similar set of cup and cup stand in the National Palace Museum, illustrated by Shi Jingfei, in Radiant Luminance: The Painted Enamelware of the Qing Imperial Court, p. 119, pls. 79 A, 79 B, sharing the same characteristics of the blue enamel mark on the base of the cup and the black enamel mark on the base of the cup stand as the present set. After research into Palace records and close examination of the differences in the colours of the enamels and the style of the writing in the marks between the cup and the cup stand, the author suggests that the former was likely to have been made during the later years Qianlong period in Canton to match the cup stand made during the Yongzheng reign.
A cup and cover with an oval stand similarly enamelled with peaches and bats, Shou character roundels, and a composite floral border in the National Palace Museum, is illustrated in Enamel Ware in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1999, pp. 208-209, no. 105. Another example, also decorated with bats, peaches and Shou characters amidst flower scroll is in the Qing Court Collection, Beijing, illustrated in Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 43, Hong Kong, 2002, p. 197, no. 188.
Compare to a similar set of cup and cup stand in the National Palace Museum, illustrated by Shi Jingfei, in Radiant Luminance: The Painted Enamelware of the Qing Imperial Court, p. 119, pls. 79 A, 79 B, sharing the same characteristics of the blue enamel mark on the base of the cup and the black enamel mark on the base of the cup stand as the present set. After research into Palace records and close examination of the differences in the colours of the enamels and the style of the writing in the marks between the cup and the cup stand, the author suggests that the former was likely to have been made during the later years Qianlong period in Canton to match the cup stand made during the Yongzheng reign.