Lot 14. A rare ochre glazed 'Parrot' cup, Tang Dynasty (618-907). 13cm (5 1/8in) long. Estimate £ 30,000 - £ 50,000. Sold for £ 93,812 (€ 103,740). Courtesy Bonhams.

Of shallow oval form, one end formed as a parrot lying on its back, the finely incised tail and wing feathers fanning out to form the cup, the head with large curling beak between sharp piercing eyes, all covered in a warm yellow-ochre glaze, stand.

Provenance: Berwald Oriental Art, London
Professor Conrad Harris, UK, purchased on 20 February 2003 from the above.

Published: Berwald Oriental Art Facing East, Expressions in Chinese Art, London, no.16.

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermoluminescence test no.C101u72, dated 31 August 2001, is consistent with the dating of this lot.

Note: Conrad Harris became interested in Chinese pottery in the late 1990s, around the time he retired as Professor of General Practice at Leeds University. Having moved on from a career in medical academia, he took an academic approach to learning about the styles and artefacts of different periods - from the Neolithic to the great dynasties of China. Harris was a highly erudite collector, who travelled extensively in China, pursuing his interest in ancient pottery wares through many provincial museums. He gave regular lectures and, in 2002, gained a Diploma in Asian Art from the British Museum. He was an active member of the Oriental Ceramic Society and, in the 2003/04 Oriental Ceramic Society Transactions, he contributed the lecture 'Chinese ceramic horses and how they changed'. Most importantly, he gained immense pleasure from seeing his collection take pride of place on the shelves all around his study.

The term yingwu bei, literally 'parrot cup', is first mentioned as early as the Sui dynasty, in a poem by Xue Daoheng:

'Together pour the fine buttery wine; together tip the parrot cup'
共酌瓊酥酒，同傾鸚鵡杯。

And it occurs again in a Tang poem by Luo Binwang:

'The playing of flutes on the Phoenix Tower has ceased, the urgings to drink wine from the parrot cup has stopped.'
鳳凰樓上罷吹簫，鸚鵡杯中休勸酒。

The contemporary dictionary interpretation of the term 'parrot cup', which comes from a Tang source, is that it is a cup made from yingwu luo 'parrot snail', meaning perhaps a nautilus shell, named for its supposed resemblance to a parrot. As the exterior form of this cup resembles the shape and size of a nautilus shell, but the piece is fashioned from a representation of a parrot, cups such as this may have been produced as an amusing play on words.

Although the parrot was a bird native to southern China, those most admired in the Tang court were the more colourful ones imported from South-East Asia. The later Tang emperor Taizong (r.627-649) commissioned a rhapsody poem to be written about a prized parrot that was a gift from the kingdom of Champa. Furthermore, the Tang emperor Xuanzong (r.712-756) adopted a talking parrot as a pet.

Compare with a similar cup, but covered in a white glaze, Tang dynasty, which was exhibited in the Tokyo National Museum, Special Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics', Tokyo, 1994, pl.136.

See also a Xingyao white glazed 'parrot cup', Tang dynasty/ Five dynasties, which was sold at Bonhams Hong Kong, 9 October 2014, lot 140.

Bonhams. Fine Chinese Art, London, 5 Nov 2020