Lot 3093. A fine and rare wucai 'Narcissus' month cup, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722); 6.5 cm., 2 1/2  in. Estimate 800,000 -- 1,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,600,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's 2013.

delicately potted of deep 'U'-shape with flared rim and a short straight foot, painted on one side in the wucai palette in underglaze blue and overglaze enamels with two clumps of narcissus, the larger one with a blue rock behind and a single red rose emerging from its midst, representing the twelfth month, the reverse inscribed with a poem relating to the flowers in front, followed by the seal shang ('to appreciate'), the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within double circles.

Provenance: Christie's Hong Kong, 29th April 2002, lot 623

Note: The present cup depicts the narcissus of the twelfth month and the poem reads and can be translated as follows: 

Chunfeng nong yu lai qing zhou, ye yue lingbo shang dati.

'The spring breeze plays with these gems when daylight arrives.
When the moon traverses at night, it sends ripples up the long dike

Full sets of month cups include one in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, included in the exhibition The Wonders of the Potter’s Palette. Qing Ceramics from the Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1984, cat. no. 15; another set illustrated in Julian Thompson, The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, cat. no. 40; and a third published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 4, London, 2010, pls. 1728-39.

A single narcissus cup, from the H.M. Knight collection, was sold twice in our London rooms, 12th May 1977, lot 99, and again, 31st October 1995, lot 494; and another was sold in our New York rooms, 20th March 2002, lot 196.