Lot 2903. A fine blue and white ‘bird and flower’ cup, Yongzheng period (1723-1735); 3 5/8 in. (9.8 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 400,000 - HKD 600,000 (USD 51,377 - USD 77,065). Price realised HKD 812,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019

The thinly potted cup is delicately painted to the exterior with two pairs of birds perched on loquat trees, the interior with a stylised double-vajra enclosing lanca characters. The countersunk base is inscribed with an apocryphal Chenghua reign mark in a double square, box.

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 28 April 1992, lot 101.

Note: This delicate cup, with its thin potting and soft tones of cobalt blue, is inspired by prototypes from the Chenghua reign, such as two cups of identical size and design of Chenghua mark and period, in the National Palace Museum Collection, illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ch’eng-hua Porcelain Ware, Taipei, 2003, nos. 60 and 61. In the same exhibition there are also two Jiajing-marked cups with the same design, ibid, nos. 62 and 63.

Compare to an identical Yongzheng cup from the Brian S. McElney Collection, illustrated in Porcelain of the High Qing Porcelain of the High Qing, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1983, no. 18.