SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)

The delicate, octagonal form of this cup, raised on a short foot, can be found in various wares of the Song dynasty. A Ge cup of very similar form in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 33 - Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (II), Hong Kong, 1996, no. 69, p. 76. See, also, a qingbai cup of this shape illustrated by J. Wirgin in Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, p. 164, no. 530, and the Longquan celadon cup of this form in the collection of the Shanghai Museum illustrated in Longquan yao yanjiu (The Research of Longquan Kiln), Beijing, 2011, p. 53, pl. 5.

The faceted shape of this cup suggests that it was based on a metal prototype, such as a Southern Song gilt-silver octagonal cup illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji (The Great Treasure of Chinese Fine Arts), vol. 10: Gongyi Meishu Bian (Works of Art and Craft), Beijing, 1987, no. 95, p. 45, with full description on p. 27.