A fine and extremely rare famille-verte 'floating petal' cup,Mark and period of Kangxi清康熙 五彩落花流水圖盃 《大清康熙年製》款with steep sides rising from a countersunk base to a slightly flared rim, delicately enamelled to the lower part of the exterior with vivid iron-red petals floating in the water amongst various types of bright green waterweed, the rippling waves freely painted in a delicate manner suggestive of wispy clouds, all between a double-line border around the rim and a single line around the base, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within a double squared. 8.3 cm来源: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 26th October 2003, lot 3.香港蘇富比2003年10月26日，編號3 文学: Julian Thompson, The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, pl. 48.朱湯生，《中國瓷器：莊紹綏收藏》，香港，2009年，圖版48 拍卖专文: No other cups of this design bearing a Kangxi mark appear to be recorded; the only comparable examples are two pairs of cups (d. 8.2 cm) with a similar motif but bearing an apocryphal Chenghua mark. The present cup distinguishes itself from its peers as the other pairs are devised with a more crowded composition and a stiffer arrangement of the petals and waves. The first pair was sold in our London rooms, 13th December 1977, lot 518 from the collection of Ms D.C. Pape; and the second pair was sold at Christie's London, 17th June 2002 from the Corrado Zigone Collection.Exquisitely painted with a mere four delicate petals scantly floating in the water, the present cup illustrates the theme of fallen flowers and flowing water (luohua liushui), one of the most vivid imageries in Chinese poetry evocative of the transience of beauty and youth. The theme is known to have existed as early as the Tianshun period (1457-65) of the Ming dynasty. In an expanded edition of Gegu yaolun [Guide to the Study of Antiquities] compiled by Wang Zuo in the 3rd year of Tianshun (1459), there is mention of Suzhou weavers producing brocaded silk with a fresh new design of ‘fallen flowers on flowing water’, which later during the Chenghua period had come into court use as a widely popular material for dresses for the court ladies, and through its popularity, the design came into the repertoire of Chenghua doucai porcelain. However, the Chenghua doucai version is more uniformly designed, with blue, red and yellow florets evenly spaced out against dense green waves, accentuated with multi-coloured clouds suspending pomegranates; see an excavated cup illustrated in A Legacy of Chenghua: Imperial Porcelain of the Chenghua Reign Excavated from Zhushan, Jingdezhen, The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. C91 and cover.As seen in the present cup, the fine and thinly potted body emulating that of the famed Cheunghua ‘chicken’ cups, its smooth tactile glaze, and skilful application of the green enamel and iron-red gradated washes, as well as the calligraphic reign mark in a double square, are all characteristics of imperial porcelain made under the directorship of Superintendent Lang Tingji between 1705 and 1712. The design is undoubtedly intended to have the flavour of the Chenghua reign - one of the most famous periods in the history of Chinese ceramics - without being a monotonous direct copy. Rather surprisingly, the decoration is not in the doucai technique typical of the Chenghua period; the green waterweed is exquisitely enamelled in the ‘boneless’ technique, lacking the characteristic underglaze blue outlines. Not only does the present cup serve as a fine specimen of Lang Tingji's interpretation of the style of Chenghua, demonstrating ideological and cultural continuities between the Qing dynasty and its predecessors, but it also serves as a testament to the artistic developments achieved at Jingdezhen in the early Qing dynasty. While Kangxi imitations of Chenghua cups are already a remarkably rare specimen, in most cases, they are inscribed with an apocryphal Chenghua square mark. It is extraordinarily rare for this type to bear a Kangxi square mark; other known examples include a doucai ‘chicken’ cup in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum. Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 212; a famille-verte ‘boneless’ ‘butterflies and asters’ cup in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 93; and another from the collection of Iver Munthe Daae, sold twice in these rooms, 8th October 2010, lot 2604 and 7th October 2015, lot 3636; and lastly, a famille-verte ‘floral and butterfly’ cup, sold twice in these rooms, 25th April 2004, lot 201 and 4th April 2017, lot 3104. For more details of the imperial production under the directorship of Lang Tingji, see Peter Lam, 'Lang Tingji (1663-1715) and the Porcelain of the Late Kangxi Period', Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 68, 2003, pp. 27-47.康熙窰署本朝年款的五彩落花流水圖盃，或僅只此對存世，獨一無二。另有兩對同式瓷盃（徑8.2公分），雖也繪飾落花流水圖，但落成化仿款，且構圖略形擁擠，花瓣、浪水的處理也更顯拘謹。其中一對成化仿款例原屬 D.C. Pape 女士收藏，售於倫敦蘇富比1977年12月13日，編號518；另外一對則屬 Corrado Zigone 舊藏，2002年6月18日售於倫敦佳士得，編號31。對盃妙繪四片瓣葉，交代流水落花之況，極富詩情。落花流水圖，取意傷懷青春之流逝，早見於天順年間。王佐的《新增格古要論》，天順三年（1459年）成書，其中「古錦」條目中謂：「今蘇州府有落花流水錦及各色錦」。到了成化年間，此類織錦更為宮廷仕女服飾潮流，盛極一時。落花流水圖，又見於成化窰鬪彩瓷器，然構圖較規範，以各色花朵平均地飄落在綠彩水波中，上添彩雲掛石榴。參考景德鎮遺址出土標本，見《成窰遺珍：景德鎮珠山出土成化官窰瓷器》，徐氏藝術館，香港，1993年，編號C91及封面。細觀本品年款風格，應造於康熙四十四年至五十一年間，郎廷極任景德鎮督陶官期間，器形近類成化窰雞缸盃，紋飾亦顯成化風格，然非單純傚摹之作，猶見康窰新意。成化作例以鬪彩裝飾，本品則撇除青花框線，妙採沒骨雅風，上承前朝韻味，卻又推陳出新，誠清初郎窰卓絕藝技的佐證。器形相同、也署康熙六字款的小盃甚是珍罕。參考北京故宮藏鬪彩雞缸盃，圖見《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集．五彩．鬪彩》，香港，1999年，圖版212；上海博物館藏五彩沒骨蝶戀花盃，收入《上海博物館藏康熙瓷圖錄》，香港，1998年，圖版93；Iver Munthe Daae 舊藏例，兩度售於香港蘇富比，分別為2010年10月8日，編號2604及2015年10月7日，編號3636；以及五彩蝶戀花盃，在2004年4月25日（編號201）及2017年4月4日（編號3104）兩度在香港蘇富比易手。有關郎窰的討論，見林業強，〈Lang Tingji (1663-1715) and the Porcelain of the Late Kangxi Period〉，《東方陶瓷學會彙刊》，卷68，2003年，頁27-47。