A fine and rare Ming-style yellow-ground and underglaze-blue handled cup, Mark and period of Yongzheng | 清雍正 黄地青花仙芝花卉紋雙耳盃 《大清雍正年製》款

Sotheby's London, 10th June 1997, lot 100.

倫敦蘇富比1997年6月10日，編號100

This exquisite cup with its crisp butterfly handles and tiers of lingzhi and floral blooms, belongs to a select group of wares from Yongzheng period that celebrate both tradition and innovation. While the form and design of this cup closely follow prototypes of the early Ming period, the brilliant lemon-yellow ground adds a sense of contemporaneity to the piece. This stunning glaze was an innovation of the Yongzheng period that was first introduced to the potters at Jingdezhen in 1728 when Tang Ying was appointed resident manager of the Imperial kilns.   

Cups of this form and with a lemon-yellow ground are unusual, although two were sold in our London rooms, the first, 9th June 1992, lot 299, and again 15th May 2013, lot 172; the second, 10th June 1997, lot 100. See also two other closely related cups, but slightly smaller in size, one sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 29th April 1997, lot 703; the other sold most recently in our London rooms, 4th November 2020, lot 1.

For the prototype of this design, see a Xuande mark and period cup recovered from the waste heaps of the Imperial kiln factory in Jingdezhen, and included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1989, cat. no. 47.