Displaying items by tag: chicken cup

Chinese billionaire Liu Yiqian purchased a Tibetan tapestry for HK$348 million ($45 million) at a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong today, breaking the record for the most expensive Chinese work of art he set in April.

Liu, who bought a HK$214 million Chengua-era ceramic cup -- nicknamed the Chicken Cup for its imperial allegorical depiction using poultry -- and then paid for it with his Centurion credit card at Sotheby’s, plans to show both works in his private Shanghai museum.

Shanghai-based art collector Liu Yiqian recently spent $36.3 million on a tiny porcelain cup with a humble chicken painted on its surface. But for many in China, the most shocking thing wasn’t the amount he paid, or the fact that he paid with an American Express card.

No, it was the fact that Mr. Liu decided to celebrate his Ming-dynasty purchase by sipping some tea from it.

The cup in question is one of China’s so-called “chicken cups,” which were forged in imperial kins and possess a particularly silky texture. Though fakes abound, only 19 genuine articles are known to exist. To art experts, they’re known as the “holy grail” of Chinese porcelains.

A Ming Dynasty wine cup sold for $36.05 million at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on Tuesday, April 8, breaking the world auction record for Chinese porcelain. The tiny porcelain cup, which features a color painting of a rooster and a hen tending to their chicks, was purchased by the Shanghai-based financier, Liu Yiqian, by telephone bid.

The previous record for Chinese porcelain was set in 2010 when a gourd-shaped vase from the Qianlong period sold for $32.58 million. The chicken cup also surpassed the previous world record for Ming Dynasty porcelain, which was set in 2011 by a blue and white vase that brought more than $21 million. Nicolas Chow, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Asia, said, “There is no more legendary object in the history of Chinese porcelain. This is an object bathed in mythology.”

The chicken cup was created during the reign of the Chenghua Emperor between 1465 and 1487, a period known for its exceptional porcelain. A number of later emperors were so enamored by the chicken cup’s design that they commissioned numerous copies. There are less than 20 such cups in existence, with only four in private collections. Yiqian’s cup is the only genuine chicken cup in China.