A CHINESE DOUCAI CHICKEN CUP.

Qing Dynasty, Kangxi mark and probably of the period.

Each with deep rounded sides rising to a very slightly everted rim, the exterior painted on two cockerels surrounded by five small chicks, the scene divided by a rock from which sprays of peonies emerge, the interior painted with a circular roundel enclosing a rock with bamboo shoots and three differently coloured sprays of lingzhi fungus emerging from behind, the base with a six character Kangxi mark within a double circle in underglaze blue, 6.5cm diameter, 3cm H.

Provenance: from an English private collection near Southampton, acquired prior to 1920s, thence by descent.

清约康熙 鬥彩雞缸杯，青花「大清康熙年製」篆書款

來源：英國南安普頓附近私人收藏，得於1920年代前，後傳承至現藏家。

The rarity and value of the Chenghua doucai chicken cup was well noted during the Kangxi era. In his Biji, Shen Defu (1578-1642) noted that 'In ceramics the dearest are those of the Chenghua reign, then those from the Xuande reign. A cup used to count only several ounces [of silver], when I was a child I did not think of them as valuable treasures. A pair of Chenghua wine cups now fetches 100 ounces [of silver], and a Xuande incense burner almost as much.' (translated by Craig Clunas, Superfluous Things - Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern China, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1991, p. 136-7).

As such both close copies and more free interpretations were created during the Kangxi period. An example of a piece within the latter category includes the piece from the collection of Sir Percival David and now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Stacey Pierson and Rosemary Scott, Flawless Porcelains: Imperial Ceramics from the Reign of the Chenghua Emperor, London, 1995, pl. 40.

However, the present piece the artist has taken slightly more liberties in the design depicting two cockerels with the five chicks in the absence of hens. Here the two cockerels are painted with a more naturalistic rendering of the tail feathers with one modelled standing to allow the feathers splayed out to display the painter’s virtuoso skill.

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