A 'Hatcher Cargo' blue and white 'erotic' cup, Ming dynasty,...

the base with an apocryphal Chenghua six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double square (2)

Diameter 2¾ in., 7 cm

Condition Report:
In overall good condition with minor expected wear and firing imperfections, including a small glaze flake to the rim.

整體品相良好，見細微磨痕、窰燒微瑕，屬正常，包括口沿見一小磕釉。

Catalogue Note:
See two comparable blue and white cups, also from the 'Hatcher Cargo', sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 29th April 2022, lot 3672, from the Bertholet Collection and exhibited in The Chinese Pleasure Garden: Erotic Art from the Bertholet Collection, Museum für Asiatische Kunst, Berlin, 2011.

Compare also a blue and white ‘erotic’ cup dated to the Kangxi period from the collection of C.T. Loo, published in Michel Beurdeley, in collaboration with Kristofer Schipper, Chang Fu-Jui and Jacques Pimpaneau, Chinese Erotic Art, Rutland, 1969, p. 128, together with a Kangxi period snuff bottle of comparable scenes.

Provenance:
The Hatcher Cargo Collection.

Christie's Amsterdam, 14th March 1984, lot 255 (part lot).

Collection of Julia and John Curtis.

Christie's New York, 16th March 2015, lot 3526 (part lot).