Lot 3656. A pair of anhua-decorated white-glazed winecups, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722), 9.3 cm, 3 5/8  in. Estimate 300,000 — 400,000 HKD. Lot sold 375,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's.

each delicately potted with thin conical sides rising from a short foot to a slightly flared rim, the interior decorated with a thin white slip in the anhua technique, depicting stylised lotus blooms borne on a meandering scroll, covered overall in a transparent glaze, the central interior incised with a four-character Yongle seal mark within a circle.

Provenance: Collection of Alfred E. Hippisley (1848-1939).
Collection of Mrs Yale Kneeland.
Anderson Galleries, New York, 30th January 1925, lot 201 (two of four).
J.J. Lally & Co., New York.

Note: Notable for its milky white glaze and carefully executed floral scroll, closely related cups of this form with apocryphal Yongle mark include one from the collection of Mr and Mrs Alfred Clark, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society Exhibition of Monochrome Porcelain, London, 1948, cat. no. 32; another from the collection of Edward T. Chow, sold in these rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 56; and a slightly smaller bowl from the Oppenheim collection, now in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. XLIII, no. 1a, together with one lacking the apocryphal mark, no. 1b. Compare also a cup of similar form and size, but decorated with the bajixiang, sold in our New York rooms, 25th October 1973, lot 198.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 03 Oct 2017