A pair of famille-verte 'month' cups, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period | 清康熙 五彩花神盃一對

Collection of Anton Dreesmann.

來源：

Anton Dreesmann 收藏

The fourth month cup is painted with a cluster of peonies with four red blooms and one yellow, growing behind pierced blue garden rocks. The scene is accompanied by the poem

Xiao yan yuan fen jin zhang lu. Mu xiang shen re yu tang feng.

'At dawn its beauty receives dew from a golden palm.

In the evening the fragrance penetrates deep into the Jade Hall.'

The eighth month shows a small hare seated in the grass beneath a flowering cassia tree, and the poem

Gen sheng wu xian yue. Hua man zi ran qiu.

'The roots are growing for months without end.

Once they are laden with blossoms, autumn has surely arrived.'

Month cups elegantly painted with seasonal flowers in famille-verte accompanied by pertinent two-line poems are a classic design of the Kangxi period. See a closely related month cup of this type depicting peony in the fourth month, from the collection of R.H.R. Palmer, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30th May 2023, lot 2820.