WINTER EXHIBITION 2008 - Roger Keverne

70 ROGER KEVERNE WINTER 2008
53
A painted enamel cup and saucer
18th century
Diameter of saucer: 4P in, 12.4 cm
the cup of U-shape with a slightly everted
lip and, together with the saucer, decorated
in the famille-rose palette on a bright yellow
ground. The cup is painted with a running,
scaly, five-clawed dragon on waves amid
clouds chasing a flaming pearl, and the
interior and base each with a phoenix
medallion. The saucer is painted with a
similar confronting dragon to the interior,
with a frieze of four Shou (longevity)
medallions alternating with paired stylised
geometric dragons to the walls; the exterior
with two running dragons chasing flaming
pearls, and the base with a medallion of
two scrolling phoenixes.
For larger bowls with the same decoration,
see Lu, Li and Wan, Life of the Emperors
and Empresses in the Forbidden City, p. 57;
and Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum,
The Prime Cultural Relics Collected by
Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum: The
Enamel Volume, no. 2, p. 38. Gillingham
illustrates a very similar saucer in Chinese
Painted Enamels, no. 49, p. 46.