Lot 3330. A rare small painted enamel cup, Qianlong blue-enamelled four-character mark within double squares and of the period (1736-1795); 2 1/8 in. (5.3 cm.) diam. Estimate HK$400,000 - HK$600,000 ($51,829 - $77,744). Price Realized HK$812,500 ($105,253). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014

The cup is delicately constructed with rounded sides rising to a straight mouth, the body finely enamelled with a continuous scene depicting ornamental garden rocks surrounded by sprigs of roses, narcissus and asters, all against a sky stippled in blue fading to white, the interior turquoise enamelled. The rims are gilt. The foot ring enclosing the reign mark is in blue enamel, box. 

Note: A Qianlong-marked example with very similar decoration but a foliate metal rim, from the estate of Eugene O. Perkins, which was exhibited at Chinese Painted Enamels, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1978, Catalogue no. 85, was sold at Christie's New York, 30 May 1991, lot 56, and again at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 31 October 2004, lot 150.

There are two other foliate-rim cups showing similar naturalistic depiction of flowers. The pair are in the British Museum, illustrated by Jessica Rawson, Chinese Art, London, 1992, pl. 143. One of the pair is again illustrated by Hugh Moss, By Imperial Command, An introduction to Ch'ing Imperial Painted Enamels, Hong Kong, 1976, pl. 24, where the author states that the technique of painting enamel matured during the Qianlong period to a degree that allowed miniature paintings by the palace enamel technicians to emerge from the kiln flawless, op. cit., Text, p. 49. He also mentions it was not unusual that imperial enamelled pieces made at the Canton workshops of a comparable quality to those produced by the Palace workshops, p. 53.

Christie's. The Imperial Sale / Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 May 2014