A black and red painted lacquer 'Ear cup', Warring States Period. Photo Sotheby's

of elliptical form, with deep rounded sides supported on a flat base, flanked by a pair of 'butterfly-wing' shaped ears set at a low angle, the exterior, ears and interior rim lacquered in black with red-painted specks on the handles and rim and stylized bird’s heads on the interior mouth, the interior lacquered in red; 17.6 cm., 6 7/8 in. Estimation 40,000 — 60,000 HKD

Exposition: 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer. Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. 2.
Layered Beauty: The Baoyizhai Collection of Chinese Lacquer, Art Museum, Institute of Chinese Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2010, cat. no. 2.

Lacquer ear cups of this elliptical shape with angular or crescent-moon form handles were made from the Warring States period to the fifth century. They are known in three main forms, those with rectangular ears, those with round ears and those with a stem-foot. It is noted in 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 28, that 'ear cups' with rectangular handles appeared in the 5th century B.C. and were no longer used during the Han dynasty; ones with round or crescent-moon shaped ears, as the present cup, were used during the Warring States period; and vessels with a tall stem-foot were always constructed with rectangular ears and are also attributable to the Warring States. Amongst cups of this kind, the relatively tall body, the elongated elliptical mouth, and the butterfly-wing shaped angular ears with a pronounced indentation are all characteristics found in wares from the mid Warring States period, suggesting an early attribution to this delicate piece. Known in Chinese as bei or yushang, cups of this type were used for drinking wine, as well as for holding small edibles (xiaochi) presented at banquets.

A slightly shorter but wider cup of this type, similarly painted in red on the inside and black on the outside, is illustrated ibid., pl. 2; two slightly larger examples are published in Zhongguo qiqi quanji, vol. 2, Fuzhou, 1997, pls. 26-27, both in the Jingmen City Museum in Hubei province; and two further cups of this type, excavated from a tomb in Wangshan, Jiangling, Hubei province, were included in the exhibition Lacquer from the Warring States to the Han Periods Excavated in Hubei Province, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994, cat. nos. 3-4.
For the inspiration of this this type of vessel, see a cup attributed to the late Eastern Zhou dynasty, said to be from Changsha in Hunan province and now in the Freer Gallery in Washington D.C. published in Urushi, Tokyo, 1988, fig. 1-2.

Sotheby's. The Baoyizhai Collection of Chinese Lacquer, Part 1, Hong Kong | 08 avr. 2014 - www.sothebys.com