YONGZHENG IMPRESSED FOUR-CHARACTER SEAL MARK WITHIN A CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

The present cup with its delicate lace-like slip-decoration beneath the white glaze is a very unusual decorative style in Qing period ceramics. This subtle technique enjoyed a brief popularity in the Yongzheng period among lighter-coloured glazes as exemplified by a yingqing-glazed bowl stand with slip designs of bats in flight, dating to the Yongzheng period, included in the exhibition Qingdai danseyou ciqi, Monochrome Porcelains of the Ch'ing Dynasty', National Palace Museum, 1981, illustrated in the Catalogue, p. 113, no. 60. Slip-decoration was a technique commonly used in Song period Cizhou wares but it was later adopted by the imperial kilns during the Ming and Qing periods. An example of a white-glazed cup stand, slip-decorated on the interior with prunus blooms and dating to the Ming dynasty Chenghua period, from the Edward T. Chow collection was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1981, lot 455. By the Qianlong period, this method of decoration gave way to overglaze decorations with the advancement in the development of the famille rose palette, and in particular the improvement of white enamels. For Qianlong-marked bowl with white enamel decoration on a turquoise ground, see The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai wenwu chubanshe, 2003, p. 265.