The Meiyintang Chenghua “Chicken Cup”
UPDATE: SOLD FOR US$36.05 MILLION, A WORLD RECORD PRICE FOR A PIECE OF CHINESE PORCELAIN.
Sotheby’s will offer a “Chicken Cup” – the most expensive, most sought-after and most reproduced Chinese objects since the Ming dynasty – at their Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art spring sales in Hong Kong on April 8. The Meiyintang Chicken Cup – estimated at $25.6-38.5 million US – is one of only four preserved in private hands. The Meiyintang Collection is Europe’s grandest collection of Imperial Chinese porcelain.
First created in the Chenghua reign (1465 – 87), “Chicken cups” have been praised, desired and reproduced by Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) emperors and other discerning literati collectors. With a legendary aura that goes well beyond their immediate art-historical importance,“chicken cups” have in modern days set record prices for Chinese art in 1980 and 1999.
Chenghua “Chicken cups” were produced in extremely small quantities. Apart from the present example, only three others are preserved in private hands and no more than a few of the world’s most prestigious museums can boast an example among their collections, including The National Palace Museum, Taipei; the British Museum, London; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Collections Baur, Geneva. The present example was sold at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in 1999 for $3.7 million US.
UPDATE: It sold for a world record price of US$36.05 million to Shanghai collector Mr. Liu Yiqian.