J.J. Lally & Co., Oriental Art / New York City, New York

Jade carvings inscribed with the Yongzheng imperial reign mark are extremely rare. It is very likely that the early jade and porcelain dragon-handle cups were the inspiration for the design of the present cup, an idea supported by the use of the archaic style seal characters in the Yongzheng mark at the base.

Compare the plain white jade cup with two handles inscribed with the same archaic style four character Yongzheng reign mark in seal script, from the Qing Court Collection, now in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji (The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum), Jadeware (III), Hong Kong, 1995, p. 248, no. 203, described as one of very few jade vessels inscribed with the imperial Yongzheng reign mark known to exist.

Compare also the jade cup with similarly carved openwork dragon handles, from the Qing Court Collection and illustrated in the same series, op. cit., Jadeware (II), pp. 247-248, no. 191, described as a Ming dynasty work of high artistic achievement. Another Ming dynasty jade cup of octagonal form, carved with two dragons climbing over and around the two squared loop handles, is illustrated with a jade saucer in Gugong bowuyuan cangpin daxi: yuqi bian (Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum: Jade), Vol. 7, Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2011, pp. 234-235, no. 221.

An earlier jade cup with chilong dragon handles in the Musée Guimet, Paris, was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and illustrated by Rawson and Ayers in the catalogue, Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, London, 1975, p. 100, no. 326, attributed to the Yuan/Ming dynasty, 13th-16th century, where the authors note “Such cups with two dragon handles make their appearance in Ying-ch’ing porcelain of late Sung or Yuan … and remain popular throughout the Ming period.”

Yingqing glazed porcelain cups of this type from the Kempe Collection, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, the Honolulu Academy of Arts, and the Barlow Collection, University of Sussex are illustrated by Wirgin in ‘Sung Ceramic Designs,’ Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, No. 42, Stockholm, 1970, pls. 28f-i.