Lot 911. A rare pair of grisaille-decorated wine cups, Yongzheng six-character marks in underglaze blue within double circles and of the period (1723-1735); 2 1/8 in. (5.4 cm.) diam. Estimate $50,000 – $70,000. Price Realized $173,000. © Christie’s Image Ltd 2014

Each thinly potted, bell-shaped cup is delicately painted in grisaille on the exterior with a different figural scene; on one a man fishes from a rocky ledge in the foreground of a distant landscape, and on the other three scholars converse on a ledge near a waterfall in a landscape of rocks, trees and mountains. The bottom of each interior is decorated in famille rose enamels with scattered flowers and petals. 

Provenance: Alfred E. Hippisley (1848-1939) Collection.
The Hippisley Collection of Chinese Porcelain; Anderson Galleries, 30-31 January 1925, lot 196 (two of four).
Mary Cunningham Bishop Peabody (1893-1980).
James Bishop Peabody (1922-1977), and thence by descent to the present owner.

Literature: Alfred E. Hippisley, A Sketch of the History of Ceramic Art in China: with a catalogue of the Hippisley Collection of Chinese Porcelains, Washington D.C., 1902, p. 405, (two of nos. 315-318).

Exhibited: Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., 1887-1912.

Note: Alfred E. Hippisley, who played an instrumental role in the development of America’s « Open Door » policy in China in the 19th century, began his career in the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs Service in 1867, and held various posts at Shanghai, Peking and elsewhere, until he resigned in 1910. His collection of porcelains was exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., from 1887-1912. Included in this exhibition were four wine cups (nos. 315-318) which fit the description of the present pair.

A similar cup, also with Yongzheng mark, and a gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel B. Grimson, is in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum.

Christie’s. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 18 – 19 September 2014, New York, Rockefeller Plaza.