Detail View: National Palace English: Cup with grape design in dou-cai enamels

Work ID: 
M01A00091
Title: 
Cup with grape design in dou-cai enamels
Creation Date: 
Cheng-hua reign, Ming Dynasty
Start Year Date: 
A.D.1465
End Year Date: 
A.D.1487
Dynasty: 
54 Cheng-hua reign (A.D. 1465~1487)
Kiln: 
Cheng-hua ware
Creation Place: 
China
Measurements: 
Height: 4.7 cm; Diameter (mouth): 7.6 cm; Diameter (base): 3.0 cm
Material: 
Porcelain
Form: 
Bei (cup)
Type: 
Ceramics
Subject: 
Vegetable
Repository: 
The National Palace Museum, Taipei
Description: 
This stemcup is plain inside, and its exterior depicts two shrubs of grapes, containing both the mature and the immature ones. The red enamel is used to paint mature grapes, which appear extraordinarily vitreous with the adding of light purple enamel. The grapes are flanked by verdant leaves and bamboo. Cobalt blue is used to depict the plains. Chenghua doucai outlines the silhouette with cobalt blue and fills it with brilliant enamels, thus forming a sharp picture. This is a special achievement of the Chenghua imperial kilns, and the court appreciates it. Chenghua doucai was particularly reputable in the Wanli period, and it could fetch a high price. Literati and connoisseurs studied and recorded them in detail. Extant Chenghua doucai grapes cups are extremely rare. The reign mark, "made in the Chenghua period of Great Ming," is inscribed in a double rectangular case on the base.
ImageV ID: 
M01A00091AS004
Rights: 
Lee & Lee Communications