A blue and white stem cup, Kangxi four-character mark in underglaze blue in a line and of the period (1662-1722). Estimate $8,000 – $12,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015  

The deep, bell-shaped cup is raised on a tall, flaring foot and decorated in a penciled style with a spray of camellia opposite a similarly rendered spray of crabapple, all below a dentil band interrupted by a four-character Kangxi mark in a line at the rim and above plantain leaves on the foot. 4 in. (10 cm.) high 

Provenance: J. M. Hu (1911-1995) Collection. 
Wedding gift to H. H. Hu, early 1930s, and thence by descent to the present owner. 

Notes: It is very rare to find a stem cup of this type with a Kangxi mark. A cup of similar shape and with similar pencil-style decoration, but without a mark, from the collection of P.J. Donnelly, is illustrated in the Oriental Ceramic Society'sCatalogue of an Exhibition of Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, 14th to 19th Centuries, London, 1954, no. 239. See, also, a similar cup from the Collection of Julia and John Curtis, sold in An Era of Inspiration: 17th-Century Chinese Porcelains from the Collection of Julia and John Curtis; Christie’s New York, 16 March 2015, lot 2568. 

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 17 - 18 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza