Page 18 - Sotheby's Fine Chinese Art NYC September 2023

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.

32 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11275 PROPERTY FROM THE BARBARA AND LESTER LEVY COLLECTION 33