Page 29 - Bonhams Asian Art London November 5, 2020

The contemporary dictionary interpretation of the term ‘parrot cup’, commissioned a rhapsody poem to be written about a prized parrot
which comes from a Tang source, is that it is a cup made from yingwu that was a gift from the kingdom of Champa. Furthermore, the Tang
luo ‘parrot snail’, meaning perhaps a nautilus shell, named for its emperor Xuanzong (r.712-756) adopted a talking parrot as a pet.
supposed resemblance to a parrot. As the exterior form of this cup
resembles the shape and size of a nautilus shell, but the piece is Compare with a similar cup, but covered in a white glaze, Tang
fashioned from a representation of a parrot, cups such as this may dynasty, which was exhibited in the Tokyo National Museum, Special
have been produced as an amusing play on words. Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics’, Tokyo, 1994, pl.136.

Although the parrot was a bird native to southern China, those most See also a Xingyao white glazed ‘parrot cup’, Tang dynasty/ Five
admired in the Tang court were the more colourful ones imported dynasties, which was sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 9 October 2014,
from South-East Asia. The later Tang emperor Taizong (r.627-649) lot 140.