Lot 3614. Property from the Zhuyuetang Collection. A famille-verte 'month' cup, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722); d. 6.5 cm. Lot Sold 1,016,000 HKD (Estimate 500,000 - 800,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2023 

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29th October 1991, lot 224 (one of two).

Note: Month cups depicting seasonal flowers in famille-verte accompanied by pertinent two-line poems represent a classic design of the Kangxi period. Very delicately potted, these month cups are meticulously painted in the proper wucai palette of underglaze blue and overglaze enamels, which was devised in the Ming dynasty, but rarely used in the Qing, when the underglaze color was generally omitted. On these month cups, the designs are generally sketched on the unglazed porcelain in a faint underglaze blue.

The present cup represents the fourth month and is painted with a cluster of peonies with four red blooms and one yellow, growing behind pierced blue garden rocks. The scene is accompanied by the poem:

At dawn its beauty receives dew from a golden palm.
In the evening the fragrance penetrates deep into the Jade Hall.

The God of Flowers cup depicts flowers of the four seasons and is accompanied by two lines of ancient poetry. The poetry and painting complement each other and is a classic porcelain masterpiece of the Kangxi Dynasty. Five colors are self-evident, that is, painting with underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze colored materials. The Kangxi flower god cup is exquisitely smelted. It is first drawn and outlined with underglaze light green on the blank. Following the Ming style, it is skillfully decorated with traditional colorful tones.

In April, I painted a clump of peonies with four red flowers blooming. Also see the yellow flowers hiding behind the cobalt bluestone.

Title of the poem: "The beauty of dawn is far away from the dew of golden palms, and the fragrance of dusk is deeply stirring up the wind in the jade hall."

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 9 October 2023