A RARE BLUE AND WHITE STEM CUP

Description:

China, Chenghua six-character mark, early Kangxi period
H. 7,2 cm
The everted sides of the stem cup are finely decorated with nine mythical 'sea creatures', haishou including winged dragons, turtles, lions, qilin and horses with long manes and tufted tails reserved in white against a ground of crested waves painted in deep tones of cobalt blue. The sea creatures are finely detailed with incised decoration outlining their features. The pedestal foot is decorated with waves crashing against rocks and two white hares. The interior shows a conch shell. Underglaze blue encircled Chenghua mark to base.
Old East German private collection, assembled before 1990
A related example of a Xuande stem cup of the same design in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan is illustrated in the Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 73. The design relates very closely. The National Palace Museum stem cup illustrated alongside another version of the stem cup with the creatures decorated with the same design in underglaze blue against a lightly penciled ground of waves, ibid, no. 74. Another example of the latter type was excavated at Zhu Shan, Jingdezhen and illustrated in Yuan's and Ming's Imperial Porcelains Unearthed from Jingdezhen, Beijing, 1999, p. 188, no. 146. The same decoration can also be found on larger stem bowls of the Xuande period such as the example sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 September 1992, lot 473. The theme of the mythical sea creatures and their origins in the Han dynasty book by Liu Xiang, Shan Hai Jing, is discussed by J. Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, p. 128, no. 4:13. A very similar Kangxi period stemcup was sold at Sotheby's London, 9.6.2004, lot 189
Rim with small frits or chips, the stand with few small glaze chips or frits