8.2 cm. (3 1/4 in.) diam.

Finely-potted with steep rounded sides resting on a countersunk base, the exterior painted with a continuous scene depicting a young boy approaching a rooster against a setting with jagged rockwork and blooming peonies and roses issuing from leafy stems, a hen surrounded by four small chicks depicted on the reverse, below an inscription of an imperial poem by the Qianlong emperor acknowledging the emulation of earlier chicken cups, the poem dated to the bingshen year corresponding to 1776, followed by two iron red seal marks reading qian and long, the base bearing a daqing Qianlong fanggu seal mark in underglaze blue.From its first appearance on porcelains of the Chenghua period of the Ming dynasty, this charming motif of a cockerel, hen and chicks enjoyed continued popularity at court, especially during the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns. While the form and illustration altered markedly from the prototype, the Qianlong fanggu mark (‘exemplifying antiquity during the Qianlong reign of the great Qing dynasty') and the poetic inscription clearly reflect the Qianlong Emperor's admiration for the Ming dynasty prototype. The poem written on the this cup, which was composed by the Qianlong Emperor in 1776, identifies the boy as Jia Chang, a child prodigy who began training at the age of thirteen to fight cockerels for the Xuanzong emperor (r.AD 713-756). Cups of this type are commonly known with an underglaze-blue Qianlong fanggu seal mark on the base, such as a pair of cups in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, exhibited and illustrated in Special Exhibition of K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, cat.no.144; another similar also exhibited and illustrated in Selected Ceramics from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Hu, Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, 1989, cat. no.64; see also two related cups formerly in the collection of Sir Percival David and presently housed in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Catalogue of Qing Enamelled Wares, London, 1991, pl.A823 and A827.Provenance:Formerly from an old German private collection, acquired in the Berlin art trade in the 1920s

Price estimate:
HKD: 1,200,000 - 1,500,000
USD: 153,000 - 191,300

Auction Result:
HKD: --