What do I hear for two 300-year-old cups? A porcelain pair has just gone under the hammer, so to speak, for an eye-watching £1.9 million ($2.5 million) at Sotheby’s.The “going-going-gone” price of £950,000 each reflects that these are not just any old cups. They are Chinese decorated vessels from the early Yongzheng period (1723-1735) and made for royalty - probably are too good for taking a cup of tea.Sotheby’s notes that “each is painted with sophisticated shades of pastel tones to capture a sense of three-dimensionality and embody to perfection the refined aesthetic of the Yongzheng Emperor.”The floral design will not be everybody’s cup of tea. The Emperor surrounded himself with auspicious symbols such as the ‘sanduo’ motif which signifies a trio of abundances - long life, many offspring and plentiful blessings.In the fencai (‘famille-rose’) color pattern, there are sprays of red pomegranate bursting with seeds, symbolizing fruitfulness. The pink and yellow peach depicts the fruit taking 3,000 years to blossom and ripen in Xiwangmu’s garden. It therefore reflects immortality, or at least many years of good living. Instead of the more common finger citron, there is loquat, an emblem of luck with its golden skin meaning plenty. Inside the cups there are three iron-red cherries.The color scheme was devised by craftsmen at the imperial workshop in Jingdezhen as they started to work with white enamel introduced from Europe in the 18th century.The cups, estimated at £1.2 million to £1.8 million at hammer prices, were originally owned by collector Edward T. Chow: Sotheby’s had previously sold them in 1974, 2001 and 2004. They were the top lot in a £6.4 million sale of works of art spanning China’s 4,000-year history craftsmanship.
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