An important and rare copper-red 'fish' stemcup mark and period of Xuande

the sturdily potted sides of the steep bowl rising to the lipped rim, decorated on the exterior in a thickly-applied, rich copper-red glaze with three stylised fish, two depicted facing each other, the white glaze with pale bluish tint and 'orange peel' surface, the splayed foot with knife-pared unglazed rim, six-character mark in underglaze-blue within a double circle to the centre of the cup (wood stand)

Sotheby's London, 9th November 1954, lot 71.
Christie's London, 8th December 1975, lot 130.
Collection of Edward T. Chow.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 25th November 1980, lot 45.
T.Y.Chao Private and Family Trust Collection.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 18th November 1986, lot 30.

Technical progress made in the firing of underglaze copper -reds reached its heignt during the Xuande period, and the present stemcup is a fine example of such advanced wares. Jessica Harrison-Hall in Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, p. 120, notes that Xuande copper-red glaze is almost twice as thick as the Yongle red glaze and less glossy, and that excavations of the waste heaps at the imperial kilns testify to the exacting standards of the kiln supervisors and the high rate of loss of pieces which misfired.

Xuande stemcups of this desing can be found in a number of important museums and private collections. See a slightly smaller stemcup with the same decoration illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (I), Shanghai, 2000, pl.226; another of similar size and design, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsuan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1998, pl. 99, together with a stemcup of this shape but decorated with three fruits in underglaze copper-red, pl. 99; and a smaller example in the Shanghai Museum published in Zhongguo taoci quanji, vol. 12, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 236. In Western collections, see a smaller example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, included in John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, pl. 45, from the Eumorfopoulos collection; and another also in the Victoria and Albert Museum from the H.B. Harris Bequest, published in R.L. Hobson, Chinese Ceramics in Private Collections, London, 1931, pl. 214.

See also fragments of two stemcups of this form and size, excavated at the imperial kilns at Zhushan between 1988 and 1993, illustrated in Xuande Imperial Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1998, pls. 46-1, 47-1. Stemcups of this type are rarely seen at auctions, although one, from the Allen J. Mercer collection, was sold in these rooms, 14th November 1983, lot 126; and another from the collection of V. Wethered was sold in our London rooms, 6th May 1936, lot 110.   

A similar stemcup appears in the pictorial scroll catalogue of the Imperial Collection of Yongzheng, vol. VI, dated to the sixth year of his reign (A.D. 1728), which was given to Colonel A.H. Moorhead, I.M.S. by the Empress Dowager and sold in our London rooms, 19th May 1939, lot 62.