Notes: Impressive for the expertly decorated design of lotus scrolls on a sgraffiato ground, the present cup highlights the technical proficiency of porcelain manufacturers at Jingdezhen under the Qianlong reign. See a smaller cup of similar form and decoration, but with the mark Baose zhai zhi ('Studio for the Precious and Miserly') on the base, sold in these rooms, 28th November 1979, lot 236.

For Qianlong cups of slightly larger proportions and straight sides rising from a countersunk base, painted with a related blossoming lotus scroll on an incised ruby-ground, see one sold at Christie's New York, 2nd December 1993, lot 344, and again in these rooms, 8th April 2007, lot 801; and another, but decorated with a mixed-flower scroll, in the Nanjing Museum, included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Nanjing Museum, 1995, cat. no. 94. Compare also the cover of an engraved ruby-ground cup, similarly decorated with a floral design sold in our London rooms, 6th December 1994, lot 211.

The complicated and laborious sgraffiato technique here employed was first included in the repertoire of the Jingdezhen potters during the Qianlong period and was reserved for decorating very special pieces. Commonly known as jinshang tianhua, ('adding decorative pattern onto brocades'), the technique consisted of reserving the design on a monochrome enamel ground, which itself is structured by needle-point etching of endless scrolling fronds. Sgraffiato was more often restricted to smaller subsidiary borders, rather than being used for the main field of decoration, due to the difficulty of achieving an evenness in the enamel over a large surface.

For a Yongzheng reign marked cup of this form and size and its saucer, enamelled with shaped yellow-ground panels of peony blossoms on a plain ruby-ground and the exterior of the saucer decorated with iron-red bats on a plain white ground, see one illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV. Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 157, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29th April 1999, lot 537.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 05 oct. 2016, 02:30 PM