Page 71 - 2019 September 9th Bonhams Important Chinese Works of Art

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF ELLA VIRGINIA
HOBART (1876-1958)
864
TWO RARE FAMILLE ROSE CHICKEN CUPS As is de rigeur for Chinese decorative arts, the subject matter of
Yongzheng six-character marks and of the period roosters and flowers satisfies the requirement of being auspicious.
Each with flared sides rising from a flat well, finely painted to the Refer to Terese Bartholomew Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art (San
exterior with three majestic cockerels, each with differently colored Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2006) 6.34.11, p. 157,
plumage, scratching and pecking at the ground amid tufts of grass, where the author notes that the motif of peony (fuguihua) and rooster
beside pierced blue rockwork in front of chrysanthemums and peonies (gongji) forms a rebus meaning ‘May you be conferred official rank and
with large blossoms and buds, the foot inscribed in underglaze blue gain prosperity’ (gongming fugui).
with the six-character mark enclosed within a double-circle, one cup
with a bat painted on the interior just below the rim. Other than the usual wishes for good fortune however, in the present
3 3/8in (8.5cm) diameter lot the choice of subject would also have hearkened back to the
doucai chicken cup of the Ming Chenghua era. Held then and now as
$40,000 - 60,000 the one of the high points of technical mastery, this was a benchmark
for the potters at Jingdezhen against which they could prove their skills
for a very, very exacting imperial patron. The present lot however is
清雍正 粉彩雞缸盃兩件 《大清雍正年製》款 not a slavish imitation of the doucai prototype but rather a variation on
a theme, displaying a slightly varied wine cup shape with decoration
Provenance: fastidiously rendered in a sharply focused fencai rather then in a gauzy
Virginia Hobart (1876-1958), and thence by descent doucai. For another Yongzheng iteration inspired by Ming chicken
cup prototypes, see the pair from the Meiyintang collection, Sotheby’s
Hong Kong, 9 October 2012, lot 51: as noted there, that pair also
shows slight variations in shape and choices of execution but clearly
were also produced to conform to exacting Yongzheng imperial
standards.
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