Small stemcup

This vessel is a high, straight-sided cup on a flaring, solid stem; the foot is stepped on the inside. The painting is done with some skill: a court personage stands in front of a large screen, with two attendants behind him, while two other figures supplicate on their knees before him. A table behind the screen holds a vase of flowers along with some other objects. The reverse of the cup is decorated with a banana plant, rocks, and trees. Two independent floral sprays decorate the stem. The “soft-paste” body of the cup is opaque, and there is a dull sound when it is struck; the slightly off-white glaze shows a light brown crazing. The six-character mark, Da Ming Jiajing nianzhi (Made in the Jiajing reign of the great Ming dynasty), is written in two vertical rows, with no encircling element, on the recessed base of the stem. The calligraphy of this mark is quite poor and could not be of the Jiajing period. Various ornamental elements on this most unusual stemcup can be associated with designs found on the distinctive Chinese “Transitional wares” manufactured during what generally is known as the Transitional Period in Chinese ceramics.(1) Groups of figures in various settings are a staple in these “Transitional wares.” The scene of two figures appealing to a court personage on this stemcup also appears on a blue-and-white porcelain brush holder in Japan; this piece is dated to the eighth year of the Ming-dynasty Chongzhen emperor’s reign (1628 – 44), or 1635.(2) The banana plant on one side is similar to those on a blue-and-white “Transitional ware” vase dated in accordance with 1638.(3) Comparable banana plants also are on a blue-and-white “Transitional ware” vase in the Metropolitan’s collection, assigned to about the second quarter of the seventeenth century.(4) At the same time, other motifs here can be associated with porcelains of slightly later date. The floral sprays on the cup’s stem do not seem to appear on Chinese porcelains until the early Qing dynasty (1644 – 1912). They can be seen, for instance, on the neck of a polychromeenameled jar in the Art Institute of Chicago; this jar was produced during the Qing-dynasty Shunzhi period (1644 – 61) and is inscribed with a date corresponding to 1646.(5) The detached sprays on the stemcup can also be compared with those on one of the earliest dated works from the Qing-dynasty Kangxi period (1662 – 1722), a blue-and-white beaker vase in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, which is dated in accordance with 1663.(6)

Catalogue entry from Suzanne G. Valenstein. The Robert Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 313-314.

NOTES:
1. For the sake of providing a working date, the Transitional Period in Chinese ceramics is considered to have started with the death of the Ming-dynasty Wanli emperor in 1620. It spanned the changeover from the Ming to Qing dynasty in 1644 and extended to the arrival of Zang Yingxuan as director of the imperial factories at Jingdezhen in 1683. See Transitional Wares and Their Forerunners. Exhibition, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 29 January – 29 March 1981. Presented by the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Urban Council, Hong Kong. Catalogue by Richard S. Kilburn. Hong Kong, 1981; Chinese Ceramics of the Transitional Period, 1620 – 1683. Exhibition, China House Gallery, 21 October 1983 – 29 January 1984; Kimbell Art Museum, 26 May – 26 August 1984. Catalogue by Stephen Little. New York, 1983; Valenstein, Suzanne G. A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics. Rev. and enlarged ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, pp. 199 – 200, 211.
2. Cheng Fangying. “Chongzhen min yao qinghuaci de jianding” (Authentication of People’s-Ware Blue-and-White Porcelains of the Chongzhen Period). Wenwu tiandi, 2001, no. 3, colorpl. 1, lower right.
3. See Transitional Wares and Their Forerunners, 1981, fig. 17.
4. Metropolitan Museum, 20.41.4 (Valenstein 1989, no. 189). In 1972, some fragments of typical blue-and-white “Transitional wares” were found on the Little Bahamas Bank. These fragments, and other material found with them, have been identified as coming from the wreck of Nuestra Señora de la Maravillas, the second-in-command ship, or almiranta, of a Spanish royal armada of treasure galleons out of Havana, Cuba, that sank on January 4, 1656. The banana leaves on one of these fragments are quite close to those on the Metropolitan’s “Transitional ware” vase. See Metropolitan Museum, 1979.27.4 (Valenstein 1989, no. 188).
5. Chinese Ceramics of the Transitional Period, 1620 – 1683. Exhibition, China House Gallery, 21 October 1983 – 29 January 1984; Kimbell Art Museum, 26 May – 26 August 1984. Catalogue by Stephen Little. New York, 1983, no. 42.
6. See Transitional Wares and Their Forerunners, 1981, no. 91.

Marking: Apocryphal mark of the Jiajing period, 1522-1566

Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, New York; Havemeyer sale, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, 14-19 April 1930, lot 1304, ill. Acquired by Robert Lehman from the Havemeyer sale.