Footnotes

Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價

清康熙 五彩「石榴」花神杯
青花「大清康熙年製」楷書款「賞」印

Provenance: John Drew (1933-2006), England (label)
Acquired from R & G McPherson, London, June 2007 (collector's notes)

Published and Illustrated: M.White, Drinking at the Whites' House: Ceramics from the Whites' House Collection, vol.2, n.p., 2021, p.19

來源：John Drew (1933-2006)，英格蘭（標籤）
獲得於倫敦古董商R & G McPherson，2007年6月（藏家筆記）

著錄：M.White，《Drinking at the Whites' House: Ceramics from the Whites' House Collection》，第二冊，無出版地，2021年，第19頁

John Drew (1933–2006) was born in Tideswell, Derbyshire, and educated at Sedbergh School and Queen's College, Oxford. He spent the majority of his professional career as an archivist in various African countries, before taking up a post at the University of Cape Town in 1978. His collection of Chinese ceramics encompasses pieces from the Neolithic period through to the eighteenth century. See R.Davids and D.Jellinek, Provenance: Collectors, Dealers and Scholars: Chinese Ceramics in Britain and America, Oxford, 2011, p.157.

The present lot is one of a set of twelve 'Month Cups' first designed and made at the Imperial kilns during the Kangxi reign. Celebrated for their exquisite craftsmanship, these cups are notable for their remarkably thin walls and the integration of the so-called 'Three Perfections'—poetry, calligraphy, and painting. Each vessel is decorated with a seasonal flower emblematic of a specific lunar month, accompanied by a poetic couplet reflecting the spirit of that time of year. The set of twelve 'Month Cups' served as seasonal wine vessels, rooted in the traditions of the Flower Festival (花朝節 Huazhao jie), a festival held on the 15th day of the second month in the Chinese calendar and which had been cherished since the Song dynasty. The floral motifs used on the 'Month Cups' correspond in both type and sequence to the twelve flower deities enshrined at the 'Temple of Assembled Spring' (匯萬總春之廟) built during the Qianlong period in Chengde. There is some regional variation in the identification of the twelve monthly flowers in China. The floral selection depicted in this set reflects those more commonly recognised in northern China.

The inscription on the present cup reads:

露色珠簾映，香風粉壁遮.

Which may be translated as:

Dew-drenched (pomegranate blossoms) are mirrored in the beaded curtain; their fragrant breeze is diffused, veiled by the whitewashed wall.

The couplet originates from Tonghe yong louqian haishiliu ershou (同和詠樓前海石榴二首), a poem by Tang dynasty Sun Ti 孫逖. Among the set of twelve cups, at least ten, including the present example, are inscribed with couplets drawn from Tang poems recorded in the Complete Tang Poems (全唐詩) which was compiled under the commission of the Kangxi Emperor and published in the forty-fifth year of his reign (1706), reflecting the Emperor's admiration for Tang poetry.

A complete set of famille verte 'Month cups', Kangxi marks and period, including a very similar cup to the present example, in the Qing Court Collection, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures from the Palace Museum: Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours (故宮博物院藏文物珍品大系：五彩·斗彩), Hong Kong, 1999, pp.152-153, no.140. See also a related wucai 'peach' month cup, Kangxi six-character mark and of the period, which was sold at Bonhams London, 16 May 2024, lot 28.