WINTER EXHIBITION 2008 - Roger Keverne

66 ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2008
51
A pair of porcelain wine cups
Tongzhi mark and period
Height: 2 in, 5.1 cm
of inverted bell shape and standing on very
slightly tapering foot rings. The sides of
each are painted in bright iron-red with two
running, scaly, five-clawed dragons, one
facing forwards and one back, chasing
flaming pearls above a band of crested
waves. The bases are painted in underglaze
blue with the six-character mark of the
Tongzhi Emperor, and of the period.
Similar single examples are illustrated in
Kerr, Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the
Qing Dynasty 1644–1911, fig. 110, p. 125,
in the collection of the Victoria and Albert
Museum; and in Scott, Elegant Form and
Harmonious Decoration: Four Dynasties of
Jingdezhen Porcelain, no. 196, p. 169, in
the collection of the Percival David
Foundation of Chinese Art. For a single
Qianlong version, see Xu, Treasures in
the Royalty: The Official Kiln Porcelain of
the Qing Dynasty, p. 269; and for a pair
of Xuantong cups, see Krahl, Chinese
Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection,
Vol. Two, no. 789, pp. 156–7.