QING DYNASTY, 18TH CENTURY

Jade bowls carved with the chicken motif are extremely rare. This pattern seems to have been inspired by the popular doucai 'chicken' cups in porcelain, which first gained prominence during the Chenghua period in the Ming dynasty, and continued to be highly sought after and copied during the Qing period. The Percival David Foundation Collection has two chicken cups from the Chenghua and Kangxi periods, both enamelled with cockerels in a garden scene similar to the scenes on the current bowls, and illustrated by Rosemary Scott, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. A Guide to the Collection, London, 1989, no. 79. The same collection has a chicken cup decorated with cockerels and a boy and inscribed with a poem by the Qianlong Emperor, illustrated by Rosemary Scott, Illustrated Catalogue of Qing Enamelled Ware in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1991, no. A827.

A related jade bowl carved with a similar theme of a boy and cockerels in a garden scene was sold in Los Angeles, 11 June 1975, lot 567, then at Sotheby's New York, 25 February 1983, lot 285 and Christie's Hong Kong, 27 April 1997, lot 9. It was later illustrated in The Splendour of Jade. The Songzhutang Collection of Jade, Hong Kong, 2011, no. 99.