Lot 3703. A fine famille-verte 'Month' cup, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722); diameter 6.5 cm., 2 1/2  in. Estimate 500,000 — 700,000 HKD (57,478 — 80,469 EUR). Lot sold 4,280,000 HKD (492,011 EUR). Photo: Sotheby's

finely potted with deep rounded sides rising from a short foot to a flared rim, the exterior delicately enamelled with red crab apple buds, the reverse inscribed in underglaze blue with a poem reading qing xiang he su yu, jia se chu qing yan ('the fragrance blends with the flavour of evening rain; the beautiful colour stands out in clear weather like in mist'), followed by a seal mark reading shang.

Provenance: Collection of Sir Harry Garner (1891-1977).
Sotheby's London, 25th March 1975, lot 267.

Exhibited: Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty, Oriental Ceramics Society, London, 1951, cat. no. 8.

Note: The differences in size, colours, inscriptions as well as scarcity suggest that month cups may not have been produced as sets of twelve, but perhaps issued consecutively.

Complete sets of month cups are therefore extremely rare. A full set of month cups in the Palace Museum, Bejing, is illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 65, pl. 48.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art Hong Kong, 07 Oct 2015