Chicken Cup (Chenghua)
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A Chicken Cup is a bowl-shaped vessel made of
Chinese porcelain Chinese ceramics are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. They range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese ...
painted in the ''
doucai ''Doucai'' () is a technique in painting Chinese porcelain, where parts of the design, and some outlines of the rest, are painted in underglaze blue, and the piece is then ceramic glaze, glazed and fired. The rest of the design is then added in o ...
'' technique. Chicken cups were created during the
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
(1368–1644), during the
Chenghua Emperor The Chenghua Emperor (9 December 1447 – 9 September 1487), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Xianzong of Ming, personal name Zhu Jianshen, changed to Zhu Jianru in 1457, was the ninth emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1464 ...
's reign (1465–1487) in China, and originally functioned as a vessel to drink wine from. Chenghua Chicken Cups were created in an imperial kiln in the
Jingdezhen porcelain Jingdezhen porcelain () is Chinese ceramics, Chinese porcelain produced in or near Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province in southern China. Jingdezhen may have produced pottery as early as the sixth century CE, though it is named after the reign name o ...
factory, in Southern China. The Emperor Chenghua had the Chicken Cup created in the 15th century as an act of devotion for his empress mother who was recorded to have an appreciation for small objects and valued a simple design taste. Chicken cups are decorated with
chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...
s, hens and cocks. There are a
rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...
and a hen which feed their young chick, as they grub for worms and stretch out their wings. The chickens on the cup are interpreted as representing core dynastic Chinese values, such as continuing the family line and nurturing the young. There are currently thirteen authentic Chenghua cups held by museums and three cups owned privately. Chicken Cups from the Chenghua period do not have specific dates of production or identified artists recorded.


Cultural significance

During the Chenghua reign, the production of imperial wares had been influenced by the style of the previous reign during the
Xuande The Xuande Emperor (16 March 1399 31 January 1435), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, personal name Zhu Zhanji, was the fifth emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1425 to 1435. He was the son and successor of ...
period (1426–1435). Toward the end of the Xuande Emperor's reign, the imperial porcelain industry in Jingdezhen began to expand production quantities. The imperial factory in
Jingdezhen Jingdezhen is a prefecture-level city in eastern Jiangxi province with a total population of 1,669,057 (2018), bordering Anhui to the north. It is known as the "Porcelain Capital" because it has been producing Chinese ceramics for at least 1,0 ...
was formally established during the Ming Dynasty in 1392, and was located in the
Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...
province of China. The factory operated as the primary supplier of porcelain to the court, with pieces also reaching the elite class. Imperial porcelains were characterised by their use of motifs which were symbolic and hierarchical, as they were regulated by the court and thought to embody the refined achievements of predecessors within the field of pottery such as those of the early Qing. During the Ming Dynasty, imperial porcelains also featured an increased range of colours, palettes and designs which could be
underglaze Underglaze is a method of decorating pottery in which painted decoration is applied to the surface before it is covered with a transparent ceramic glaze and fired in a kiln. Because the glaze subsequently covers it, such decoration is completely ...
,
overglaze Overglaze decoration, overglaze enamelling, or on-glaze decoration, is a method of decorating pottery, most often porcelain, where the coloured decoration is applied on top of the already fired and glazed surface, and then fixed in a second firi ...
or slip painted. Jingdezhen porcelains had also gained global significance, with large quantities of
Chinese export porcelain Chinese export porcelain includes a wide range of Chinese porcelain that was made (almost) exclusively for export to Europe and later to North America between the 16th and the 20th century. Whether wares made for non-Western markets are covered ...
being exported to Asia, Europe and even Africa between the 15th and 17th centuries. The chicken cup was sought out after by Ming (1368–1644),
Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
(1644–1911) emperors, especially the
Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 165420 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, personal name Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign of 61 ...
(1662–1722), as well as other Chinese literati collectors and connoisseurs in China. The popularity of the chicken cup also increased during the reign of the
Wanli Emperor The Wanli Emperor (4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shenzong of Ming, personal name Zhu Yijun, art name Yuzhai, was the 14th List of emperors of the Ming dynasty, emperor of the Ming dynasty, reig ...
(1572–1620) who admired the Chenghua ceramics and was reported to have had a rare Chenghua chicken cup stolen from his dining table. Several references within Chinese literature describe the fortunes allocated by nobles and emperors in order to obtain chicken cups in the 17th century.


Replicas

Many chicken cups were reproduced during the Qing dynasty, where replication techniques were complex and continued to advance throughout the 18th century. Imitations of chicken cups as well as other blue and white Jingdezhen wares were prominent in Southern Chinese kilns which were sold to the South-East Asian consumer market. These wares were called
Swatow ware Swatow ware or Zhangzhou ware is a loose grouping of mainly late Ming dynasty Chinese export porcelain wares initially intended for the Southeast Asian market. The traditional name in the West arose because Swatow, or present-day Shantou, was th ...
s, a European name derived from what was (wrongly) thought to be the port for exportation. Chicken cups were also subject to corruption amongst officials within the Imperial palace where records of cups stolen from the kilns exist.Savage, George, "Chinese pottery", Encyclopedia Britannica The cups currently continue to be reproduced fraudulently for sale at antique markets in China where they are sold as replicas of the original Chenghua cups.


Creation

Production of the chicken cup and other
Jingdezhen porcelain Jingdezhen porcelain () is Chinese ceramics, Chinese porcelain produced in or near Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province in southern China. Jingdezhen may have produced pottery as early as the sixth century CE, though it is named after the reign name o ...
during the Chenghua period involved a complicated process which was increasingly refined after the previous Xuande period. The design of the chicken cup was drawn onto the unfired cup using
cobalt blue Cobalt blue is a blue pigment made by sintering cobalt(II) oxide with aluminium(III) oxide (alumina) at 1200 °C. Chemically, cobalt blue pigment is cobalt(II) oxide-aluminium oxide, or cobalt(II) aluminate, CoAl2O4. Cobalt blue is lighte ...
, before the vessel was glazed and fired at high temperatures. Glazing techniques involved increasing levels of
aluminium oxide Aluminium oxide (or aluminium(III) oxide) is a chemical compound of aluminium and oxygen with the chemical formula . It is the most commonly occurring of several Aluminium oxide (compounds), aluminium oxides, and specifically identified as alum ...
whilst reducing
iron oxide An iron oxide is a chemical compound composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Ferric oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of which is rust. Iron ...
. This allowed the porcelain to withstand higher temperatures when fired and resulted in a white, dense ceramic. The high temperatures also caused the content of
iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
and
calcium oxide Calcium oxide (formula: Ca O), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term '' lime'' connotes calcium-containing ...
present in the glaze to become reduced, which led to the cup's characteristic clear and soft sheen. The cocks, hens and chickens decorating the chicken cup were painted in a cobalt blue underglaze outline, before being filled in with enamel pigments. The softness of the underglaze blue was achieved through using natural Chinese cobalt, as imported cobalt such as the Persian blue or Sumatran blue used during the Qing dynasty to create deep, bright underglazes, were unavailable during the Chenghua period. The enamel pigments were applied and then fixed in a second low temperature firing . The complex design production process of the chicken cup also involved a production line manufacturing process, where separate divisions of labour each worked to produce the different motifs depicted on the ware. The cups are believed to have been created for the emperor Chenghua's mother, Empress Dowager Wang.


Ownership


Collections

The
National Palace Museum The National Palace Museum, also known as Taipei Palace Museum, is a national museum headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in Beijing in 1925, the museum was re-established in Shilin District, Shilin, Taipei, in 1965, later expanded with a S ...
in
Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...
currently holds eight authentic chicken cup ceramics from the Chenghua period. There are five museum collections which also hold Chenghua Chicken cups; in the
British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...
(at least two) and
Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...
in London, the
Fitzwilliam Museum The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities University museum, museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard ...
,
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
, New York City, and the Collections Baur,
Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
. Three other Chenghua chicken cups are recorded as being owned privately. Two cups in the
Palace Museum The Palace Museum (), also known as the Beijing Palace Museum, is a large national museum complex housed in the Forbidden City at the core of Beijing, China. With , the museum inherited the imperial royal palaces from the Ming and Qing dynast ...
Beijing, claimed as Chenghua by the museum, are disputed by Western experts.


Sotheby's auctions

Chenghua chicken cups have recently only been offered for sale at auctions conducted by the international auction house,
Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...
. On August 8, 2014, Sotheby's conducted a seven-sale series of Chinese ceramics in
Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...
. A Chenghua chicken cup from the private Meiyintang collection of Chinese ceramics was sold at the auction for a record US$36.05 million (HK $281.24 million) to Shanghainese billionaire
Liu Yiqian Liu Yiqian (, pronounced , born 1963) is a Chinese billionaire investor and art collector. An autodidact who formerly worked as a taxi driver, he has built his fortune since the mid-1980s by investing in stock trading, real estateNRC Handelsblad ...
. This was recorded as the highest auction price for any Chinese Porcelain to be sold at. The previous record for was held by a Qing Dynasty vase which sold for US$32.4 million in 2010. The estimated pre-sale price for the Chicken Cup was recorded at US$38.6 million in 2010. The chicken cup was previously sold in 1980 in Hong Kong for US$1.08 million (HK $5.28 million), as well as in 1999, where it also established a record price for Chinese porcelain at US$3.70 million (HK $29.17 million). This Chenghua cup was previously part of the
Meiyintang Collection The Meiyintang Collection is a privately owned assembly of Chinese ceramics, porcelain and bronzes, the majority of which are presently on loan to the Swiss Rietberg Museum in Zurich, which has been hailed as one of the finest private collections ...
owned by Switzerland's Zuellig family, including industrialist Stephen Zuellig and his brother Gilbert. The brothers owned the Meiyintang collection for over half of a century. The Meiyintang collection was made up of 2,000 Chinese ceramics from the Neolithic to the late imperial periods and was one of the best European collections of Chinese imperial porcelain. The collection was assembled over a period of greater than 50 years. The cup was also previously owned by collectors such as Leopold Dreyfus, Sakamoto Goro,
Giuseppe Eskenazi Giuseppe Eskenazi (born 1939, in Istanbul) has been described as the world's most important dealer in Chinese works of art. His company, Eskenazi, has sold to more than eighty of the world's major museums, as well as numerous private collectors ...
and Edward Chow. The record auction price of the singular chicken cup is attributed to scarcity within the market for rare
Chinese ceramics Chinese ceramics are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. They range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese ...
, as well as the increased demand within the market for ancient Chinese porcelains as China's economy expanded in 2014. Several of the cups were originally displayed in the Jingdezhen museum alongside large quantities of other Chenghua ceramics. The intervention of collecting over time leading to the cup's status of singularity has enabled the Chicken Cup to become a scarce commodity. The cup is one of nineteen which continues to exist, and is the only to remain in a private Chinese collection. Purchasing the chicken cup was recorded to involve Liu Yiqian performing twenty-four swipes of an Amex card, due to Sotheby's credit card transaction limit of $US1.6 million. While the payment process proceeded at the Hong Kong auction house, Liu was photographed pouring tea into the cup and sipping from it. This event resulted in criticism from communities within China, with some suggesting the action was disrespectful and created risk of damage to the cup.


Iconography and interpretations


Style

The decorations are painted in the
doucai ''Doucai'' () is a technique in painting Chinese porcelain, where parts of the design, and some outlines of the rest, are painted in underglaze blue, and the piece is then ceramic glaze, glazed and fired. The rest of the design is then added in o ...
painting style of the Ming Dynasty, which translates to 'contending' or 'contrasting colours'. The cup is classified as a
wucai ''Wucai'' (五彩, "Five colours", "Wuts'ai" in Wade-Giles) is a style of decorating white Chinese porcelain in a limited range of colours. It normally uses underglaze cobalt blue for the design outline and some parts of the images, and over ...
ware, meaning the cup features five colours. The cup is decorated in softly toned underglaze blue washes and features contrasting overglazes and outline elements in
green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
, iron
red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–750 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seconda ...
,
yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...
,
turquoise Turquoise is an opaque, blue-to-green mineral that is a hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium, with the chemical formula . It is rare and valuable in finer grades and has been prized as a gemstone for millennia due to its hue. The robi ...
and pale aubergine coloured enamels which are bright and transparent. The cup also features two separate scenes of decoration which are divided by jagged rocks and yellow lilies with green
leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...
.


Symbols

The first scene on the exterior of the cup is an outdoor scene, which features a subject matter of two sets of cockerel, his hen, and their chicks grubbing in the dirt. The painting depicts the rooster and the hen to be taking care of the young chick. The polychrome depiction of chickens which decorate the cup is interpreted as a dynastic symbol and a parable for Chinese
Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...
beliefs. The scene is described to represent the role of the emperor nurturing and taking care of his subjects, as well as the continuation of the familial line. The motif of the rooster and hen with young chicks is also recorded to symbolise the pleasures of simple life and the belief of luck within the familial line. The depiction of a hen symbolises the values of fertility, nurturing and earth. The symbol of chickens since the Eastern
Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
has represented five merits, including literary, martial, bravery, benevolence and honesty. Other qualities which have also traditionally been associated with the rooster in Ancient Chinese art include ferocity,
courage Courage (also called bravery, valour ( British and Commonwealth English), or valor (American English)) is the choice and willingness to confront agony, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Valor is courage or bravery, especially in ...
and faithfulness. These qualities were believed to embody the emperor, who was perceived as the benevolent protector of his people within the Confucian world. The second scene of the cup is a floral scene of a rose bush beside garden and lake rocks. The cup is decorated with two sets of flower and stone motifs, including paintings of red
Peonies The peony or paeony () is any flowering plant in the genus ''Paeonia'', the only genus in the family Paeoniaceae. Peonies are native to Asia, Europe, and Western North America. Scientists differ on the number of species that can be distinguishe ...
and yellow
Lilies ''Lilium'' ( ) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs, all with large and often prominent flowers. Lilies are a group of flowering plants which are important in culture and literature in much of the world. Most species are ...
. These flower symbols are interpreted to reflect core Chinese values, as red peonies symbolise wealth and honour. The yellow lilies which are placed aside stones are interpreted to symbolise longevity.


Composition

The cup's structure includes a flared mouth, sides with shallow curvature, an everted rim and a recessed, ringed base. The cup also features a lip with a very slightly grainy texture which was theorised to occur as a result of the manufacturing process. Although the cups differ in size, they are recognised for their miniature structure, with the Doucai cup located at the Metropolitan Museum of art measuring approximately 4.1 cm in height, 8.3 cm in diameter and 3.7 cm diameter of base. The inside of the cup is white and does not have any painting design. The inside also features a distinctive Chenghua mark. This is a six-character mark which is decoded to inform the reader of the cup's creation during the Ming Dynasty within the Chenghua reign. This is painted in a blue and white glaze and is structured within a double-lined rectangular frame, which is also repeated through the double line border at the base and at the lip of the cup. The material of the Doucai porcelain is recorded as tactile, soft and thin.


References

{{reflist Ming dynasty art Chinese porcelain Chinese ceramic works Ceramics in the Metropolitan Museum of Art National Palace Museum Chickens in art Individual patterns of tableware Individual drinking vessels