A fine and rare pair of lemon-yellow-enameled cups, Marks and period of Yongzheng

American Private Collection, acquired between 1971 and 1981.

Simple yet striking in their form and color, this rare pair of cups is a remarkable and fine example of the technical perfection achieved by potters working at the imperial kilns during the Yongzheng reign (1723-1735). Although imperial yellow-glazed wares had been created at Jingdezhen from the early Ming dynasty (1368-1644) onwards, this elegant pastel-like enamel, known to connoisseurs as ‘lemon-yellow’ (ningmeng huang), is believed to have been introduced by visiting Jesuits just prior to the start of the Yongzheng period.

Delicately potted to such small and balanced proportions, the present pair of cups exemplifies some of the very highest levels of technical accuracy ever achieved in the history of imperial porcelain. Adorning the small area inside the delicate foot, the present reign mark is inscribed within a double rectangle with chamfered corners. This mark is extremely rare. Compare another lemon-yellow cup of this size with the same mark, from the collection of Dr Wou Kiuan, sold in these rooms, 22nd March 2022, lot 79; and another, with a related square mark, from the collection of Stephen Junkunc, III sold at Christie’s New York, 21st September 1995, lot 253.

A larger pair of cups, with a slightly less flared rim and the reign mark enclosed within a double circle, is preserved in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm (accession no. OM-1977-0127), illustrated in Jan Wirgin, Chinese Ceramics from the Axel and Nora Lundgren Bequest, Stockholm, 1978, pl. 58a, no. 77. Compare also two smaller pairs with straighter sides, formerly in the Sir Percival David Collection: one pair now in the British Museum, London (accession no. PDF,A.567), recorded in Rosemary Scott, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1989, p. 39; the other pair included in the exhibition Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, British Museum, London, 1994, and illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, p. 240, no. 908.