Page 58 - Chinese Art Paris Auction Christie's December 2017

PROPERTY OF A SWISS PRIVATE COLLECTOR
ƒ68
RARE COUPE EN PORCELAINE DE LA FAMILLE VERTE
CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, MARQUE A SIX CARACTERES EN
BLEU SOUS COUVERTE DANS UN DOUBLE CERCLE ET
EPOQUE KANGXI (1662-1772)
De forme légèrement évasée, elle est ornée à l’extérieur et sur un This small, exceptionally thinly potted cup is from one of the imperial
côté d’un grenadier en feur, symbolisant le cinquième mois. L’autre sets of wine cups depicting the Flowers of the Twelve Months. A
côté est agrémenté d’un couplet poétique: luse zhulianying; xiangfeng complete set of twelve month cups in the collection of The Percival
fenbizhe, terminant avec une marque en cachet Shang ; restauration. David Foundation is illustrated by R. Scott in Elegant Form and
Hauteur: 5 cm. (2 in.) Harmonious Decoration - Four Dynasties of Jingdezhen Porcelain, The
Percival David Foundation, London/Singapore, 1992, p. 113, no. 122.
€5,000-7,000 $5,900-8,200
£4,500-6,200 Each of these cups was decorated in a particularly fnely painted
version of the wucai palette, with rocks and clumps of grass painted
in a soft underglaze blue, while the majority of the decoration is
A RARE FAMILLE VERTE ‘MONTH’ CUP rendered in overglaze famille verte enamels.
CHINA, QING DYNASTY, KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK
WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF The status of these cups can perhaps be judged by the fact that at the
THE PERIOD (1662-1722) end of the inscription, which accompanies the fower painting on each
cup, there is an underglaze blue seal character which reads: shang.
清康熙 五彩十二月花神盃 雙圈六字楷書款 This character may be translated as ‘enjoy’, for example to enjoy or
appreciate the fowers. However, in this context it is more probable
來源：瑞士私人珍藏 that it should be translated as ‘reward’, with the implication of being
bestowed by a superior (in this case the emperor) as a reward for
meritorious service.
The fower depicted on this particular cup is pomegranate blossom
(shiliu), the fower of the ffth lunar month. The poetic couplet is
taken from the poem tong he yong lou qian hai shi lou er shou by
the Tang poet Sun Ti (696-761). The inscription may be translated
as: ‘The colour of the pomegranate fowers dampened with dew
is refected in the beaded curtain, the breeze scented with their
fragrance is contained by the whitewashed wall, and the seeds of the
pomegranate resemble the beads of a curtain’.

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