Lot 525. A fine famille-rose 'Boy and Chicken' cup, Qianlong fanggu seal mark and period (1736-1795). Diameter 2 3/8  in., 6 cm. Estimate 80,000 — 120,000 USD. Lot sold 237,500 USD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

finely potted with steep rounded sides rising from a recessed base to a slightly everted rim, painted on the exterior with a boy approaching a rooster, a hen tending four small chicks behind the rocks, the scene further decorated with blooming peonies and roses, inscribed with an imperial poem by the Qianlong Emperor, dated to the bingshen year of the Qianlong reign corresponding to 1776, the base inscribed with a six-character fanggu seal mark in underglaze blue.

Provenance: Frank Caro Co., New York, 3rd November 1971. 
Ohio Private Collection, and thence by descent.

Exhibited: Art for Collectors, Cleveland Art Museum, Cleveland, 1971.

Note:Cups of this type derive from Chenghua doucai prototypes, and the inscribed poem acknowledges that the design is an adaptation of the earlier 'chicken' cups. For a translation of the poem and a description of the subject, see the exhibition catalogue, For the Imperial Court: Qing Porcelain from the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 1997 p. 98.