Lot 2976. An important early Ming blue and white stemcup, Xuande six-character mark within double-circles and of the period (1426-1435). Estimate HKD 5,000,000 - HKD 8,000,000 (USD 650,000 - USD 1,000,000). Price Realised HKD 7,220,000 (USD 931,207). © Christie's Images Ltd 2011.

The cup with rounded sides rising to slightly everted mouthrim, delicately painted with a scholar seated in a pavilion in observation of two small boys at play taunting crickets, within a fenced garden flanked by trees and plants, the characteristic ribbed stem with a spreading foot further decorated with a continuous landscape scene, the interior with eight sanskrit characters around the central character om, all within double-line borders - 3 in. (7.5 cm.) high, Japanese box 

Provenance: The Tsui Museum of Art
Previously sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 April 1999, lot 550 

Literature: R. Krahl, 'The T.T. Tsui Museum Collection of Chinese Ceramics', Orientations, December 1989, p. 40, fig. 17
The Tsui Museum of Art, 1991, pl. 66
Splendour of Ancient Chinese Art, Selections from the Collections of T.T. Tsui Galleries of Chinese Art Worldwide, 1996, no. 53 

Notes: A stemcup of this rare design from the C.P. Lin Collection was included in a joint exhibition the Percival David Foundation and C.P. Lin collections, and illustrated by R. E. Scott, Elegant Form and Harmonious Decoration: Four Dynasties of Jingdezhen Porcelain, 1992, no. 37, p. 47. The example from the C.P. Lin Collection was formerly in the T.Y. Chao Collection, and was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1987, lot 238.

Two related stemcups but with a lady seated in a pavilion are also known. The first is illustrated in Sekai Toji Zenshu, Ming Dynasty, vol. 14, no. 182, p. 178; and another from the collection of Jean-Pierre Dubosc was included in the Exhibition of Chinese Art, Venice 1954, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 646, p. 176. A further stemcup decorated with two ladies seated in a pavilion from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Ming Xuande Ciqi Tezhan Mulu, 1980, no. 66.