Page 124 - Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art II

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION

2272
THREE FAMILLE ROSE YELLOW-GROUND ‘MAGPIE AND PRUNUS’ CUPS
TONGZHI FOUR-CHARACTER MARKS IN IRON RED AND OF THE PERIOD (1862-1874)

Two are decorated with magpies perched and in fight amidst blossoming prunus branches, and the third with a

repeated pattern of three magpies in fight amidst and framed by the prunus branches, all on a lemon-yellow ground,

and within gilt borders.

3Ω in. ( 9 cm.) diam. (3)

$8,000-12,000

PROVENANCE: (mark)

Acquired between 1960-early 1980s, and thence by descent within the family.

For a discussion of this pattern, part of a signifcant group of porcelain produced for the celebration of the wedding of Cixi’s
son Zaichun, the Tongzhi Emperor, see R. Longsdorf, ‘The Tongzhi Imperial Wedding Porcelain’, Orientations, October 1996, pp.
69-78, where vessels of this pattern are illustrated, fgs. 14, 33 and 34.

A cup similar to the third cup is illustrated in Imperial Porcelain of Late Qing from the Kwan Collection, Art Gallery, The Chinese
University of Hong Kong, 1983, p. 106, no. 99, and another was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 4022. A pair of
cups similar to the frst two cups was sold at Christie’s New York, 22 March 2007, lot 424.

清同治 黃地粉彩「喜上眉梢」圖盃三件 礬紅四字楷書款

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