YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

No other Yongzheng cup of this design appears to be published. The present cup was probably made early in the Yongzheng period, as it compares closely to late Kangxi cups and bowls, such as a Kangxi-marked doucai bowl painted with dragon medallions in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 159 (fig. 1), which is also potted with deep rounded sides rising to a straight rim, and inscribed with a mark in three vertical columns, possibly by the same hand as the potter who inscribed the present cup given the similarity in the modulation of each stroke and the spacing between strokes. The manner in which the dragons and clouds are painted is also similar, although the use of turquoise enamel was not found on the Kangxi example.