Up to now, there are only a dozen complete Chenghua doucai porcelains in museums and private collections around the world.
There are even fewer and fewer colored cockfighting cups made of them.
This cup is a royal porcelain fired by the imperial kiln factory in Jingzhen, Chenghua Dynasty in the Ming Dynasty. It is recorded in many documents of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and is quite valuable.
"Records of Shenzong" during the Wanli period of Ming Dynasty records that "Shenzong's fashionable food, there is a pair of Chenghua color chicken jar cups in front of the emperor, worth one hundred thousand."
How much is this number of "one hundred thousand" worth?
If converted, it is equivalent to 52,000,000 yuan today!
It is said that Zhu Jianshen, the Chenghua Emperor of Emperor Xianzong of Ming Dynasty, was served by the palace maid Wanshi (Concubine Wan Guifei) as soon as he was born, which led to a relationship between his wife, sister and mother.
In order to please Concubine Wan Wan, Emperor Chenghua ordered the colorful chicken jar cup to be fired at the Jingzhen Royal Kiln.
The picture on the chicken cup is a portrayal of the "mother-son affection" between Emperor Chenghua and Concubine Wan Gui.
The biggest feature of the chicken bowl cup is that the outer wall is divided into two groups with peony lake stones and orchid grass lake stones.
A group of roosters are shown standing proudly, a female chicken and a chick are pecking at a centipede, and two chicks are playing with each other;
Another group depicts a rooster crowing, a female chicken and three chicks pecking at a centipede.
The picture is vivid and full of interest, but many imitations have been made in later generations.
On April 8, 2014, it set a new world auction record for Chinese porcelain. Since then, I don’t know how to make chicken cups, and I am not a social person!
Let’s talk about the Sanqiu Cup. Nowadays, people only know that the “Chenghua Doucai Chicken Cup” is the only rare treasure in the world. However, they don’t know that the “Sanqiu Cup” hidden in the world is the leader among porcelain and the most important weapon of the country.
Ming Chenghua Doucai Sanqiu Cup can be called the treasure of the Palace Museum and Wanwan Palace Museum!
Wang Qingzheng, the former director of the Maritime Museum and a well-known porcelain appraisal expert, said: "If this cup was auctioned on the market, the starting price would be at least US$500 million!"
The granddaughter of Sun Yingzhou, who donated the pair of Sanqiu Cups, said that the cultural relics had been valued by the public and were worth at least US$1 billion!
So why is it so expensive?
Although the Chenghua Doucai Sanqiu Cup is one of the many Doucai cup shapes.
However, its glaze is green with a hint of gray and is as thin as a cicada's wing. The cup is painted with two groups of colorful mountain stone and flower patterns, with flying butterflies in between.
The purple color applied to the butterfly wings is the famous bright purple color. Its characteristic is that the color is dense and matte, which is unique to Chenghua Doucai and is unmatched by later imitations.
Because it depicts the scenery of a courtyard or garden in autumn, and autumn generally lasts for three months, it is also known as the "Three Autumn Cups".
The shape of this cup is light and elegant, the body is as thin as a cicada's wing, the color is elegant, and the painting is fresh.
In particular, the colorful butterflies fluttering among the flowers and grass, which are about to fall and fly again, must be full and lifelike, reflecting the painter's superb painting skills and artistic accomplishment.
Looking closely at the entire cup, this Doucai Sanqiu cup is 4.3cm high, 6.8cm in diameter, and 2.6cm in foot diameter.
The mouth of the cup is wide open, the rim is not restrained, the belly is deep, the foot is thin and round, and the rim is slightly flared.
There are two underglaze blue and white string patterns on the outer edge of the mouth, and two underglaze blue and white string patterns on the outer wall of the circle foot.
Chenghua doucai cup's outer rim and base are made of underglaze blue and white, each with two string patterns.
Only this cup is similar to a small cup with sunflower pattern unearthed from the Zhushan Imperial Kiln in Jingzhen.
The inside of the cup is plain without decoration, and the outer wall of the cup is decorated with colorful decorations.
The outer wall of underglaze blue and white outlines six butterflies, two bees, three wild chrysanthemums, and three lilies, and is lined with rocks, orchids, flowers and leaves.
The entire composition of the Sanqiu Cup uses underglaze blue and white as the main color to outline flat mountain rocks, wild chrysanthemums, lilies, flower buds, and orchid branches and leaves. The color is light and the orchid is elegant.
It is supplemented by butterflies, bees, and lily flowers and leaves painted on the glaze.
A butterfly lingers on three lilies, with underglaze blue and white eyes, a long snout, body, and wings filled with beeswax and slightly translucent;
A single line of underglaze blue and white outlines two butterflies, flying between two rocks.
The long snout is made of underglaze blue and white, the wings are filled with beeswax yellow, and the body is filled with purple like hematite;
The most exquisite one lingers around the peonies and rocks, with three butterflies flying gracefully.
The underglaze blue and white shows a long snout, eyes, head, and body, and everything else is filled with hematite-like purple;
The visual effect, three purple butterflies, is eye-catching.
Two underglaze blue and white flowers outline a bee with a long snout, eyes and head.
The front half of the body is made of underglaze blue and white, and the back half of the body is filled with purple, showing a plump and sweet color.
What makes me even more amazed is that the painter used the colors to fill the lily leaves stretched out on the rocks with a greasy red color, which corresponds to the purple color like red iron.
The brilliant purple color is unprecedented and unprecedented, but it is unique to the imperial kilns of the Chenghua Dynasty.
Mr. Sun Yingzhou, the donor of this cup, described the purple as: "the color defects are different during firing" and "the purple is thick but dull".
The deceased Mr. Sun left a mystery to future generations. Fortunately, Mr. Sun Yingzhou left the Doucai Sanqiu Cup to the Forbidden City.
The colorful one above is the best answer.
Therefore, Mr. Geng Baochang, a disciple of Mr. Sun, gave a very good and accurate interpretation of the colorful color, that is, "the color is like red iron".
All the so-called collectors who are still arguing about what is a purple color will stop arguing after going to the Forbidden City to see the Sanqiu Cup.
The bright purple colors on the Doucai Sanqiu Cup are specimens.
Therefore, the "color like red iron" on Chenghua's five colors is "violet".
The drawings and color combinations of the Sanqiu Cup are unique.
Lily flowers, wild chrysanthemums, orchids, daylilies and mountain rocks are displayed in large areas with underglaze blue and white flowers.
Chenghua blue and white is made of domestic material "Ping Ping Qing" and is gray-blue in color.
The underglaze blue and white flowers of Chenghua Dynasty are in the shape of clouds, and the lily flowers and leaves are filled with greasy red color, connected in series and broken into pieces.
This contrasts with the faint blue mountain rocks that look like pale clouds, making it look particularly dazzling.
The fluttering butterflies and bees are all purple, and the bees are yellow, especially the purple color. They form a sharp contrast with the large area of elegant blue, making it even more otherworldly, noble and elegant.
The decorative painting lines are precise and delicate, and the butterflies and bees are vivid and lifelike.
Bees are flying, butterflies are dancing, flowers are laughing, orchids are floating, movement and stillness are connected, and the countryside and wild scenery are vividly displayed on the cup.
"The Book of Songs·Wang Feng·Cai Ge" has a saying: "One day's absence is like three autumns."
Sanqiu originally refers to the three months of autumn or the ninth month of the lunar calendar.
Later, people often used the explanation of three years, saying that one day of absence is like experiencing three autumns.
In fact, what best represents the "Three Autumn Periods" is that the wild chrysanthemums and lilies painted on the cup all bloom in autumn, so this cup is called the "Three Autumn Cups".
The glaze of this cup is green, thick and moist, the body is fine, moist and crystal clear, and its quality is like beautiful jade.
Under light perspective, the carcass appears tooth yellow.
The narrow circle at the bottom of the bowl where the fetus is exposed is a light "flint red" color.
The bottom of the cup has a double frame of underglaze blue and white with the six-character inscription "Ming Dynasty Chenghua Year System" written in clumsy regular script.
It has a hazy shape as a whole, with glaze bubbles like beads.
The above characteristics make this Chenghua Doucai Sanqiu Cup the best among Chenghua Doucai cups.