A fine and rare ruby-enameled cup, Mark and period of Yongzheng

American Private Collection, acquired circa 1971-1981.

The present cup, with its charming proportions and vibrant ruby-red enamel, is an archetypal example of the Yongzheng aesthetic. Imbued with understated refinement and the result of technical and chemical mastery, the present cup is indicative of the remarkably fine ceramics produced in the early eighteenth century. 

Influenced by the advent of Jesuit technology in the final years of the Kangxi period, pink enamels of this type were soon developed and embraced by the imperial workshops. However, though few Kangxi examples of this type are known, it was not until the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods that this low-fired ruby-red enamel – produced in varying shades of pink – became a more prominent feature in the repertoire of Chinese ceramics. In fact, Tang Ying (1682-1756), the famed superintendent of the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, referred to such vessels as 'Western red-glazed wares' in Taocheng jishi bei ji [Commemorative Stele on Ceramic Production].

Deceptively simple in form and color, the manufacture of such monochrome cups demanded the highest level of skill and meticulous precision, from not only the potting and firing but also the application of the enamel, which entailed blowing carefully through a silk gauze-covered bamboo tube onto the biscuit to achieve the lightly speckled yet even effect seen on the current cup.

A very small number of related Yongzheng cups is attested, produced in a range of similar shapes and sizes. Compare a slightly smaller cup of almost identical form, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 7th October 2019, lot 3102; another slightly larger cup preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 303, pl. 132; another of broader proportions with the reign mark inscribed within a single circle, from the Avery Brundage Collection, now preserved in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, published on the museum’s website, no. B60P2365; and a similar pair published in The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 126.