A Chicken Cup is a bowl-shaped vessel made of

Chinese porcelain Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics range from construc ...

painted in the ''

doucai ''Doucai'' () is a technique in painting Chinese porcelain, where parts of the design, and some outlines of the rest, are painted in underglaze blue, and the piece is then ceramic glaze, glazed and fired. The rest of the design is then added in ov ...

'' technique. Chicken cups were created during the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

(1368 – 1644), during the

Chenghua Emperor The Chenghua Emperor (; 9 December 1447 – 9 September 1487), personal name Zhu Jianshen, was the ninth Emperor of the Ming dynasty, who reigned from 1464 to 1487. His era name " Chenghua" means "accomplished change". Childhood Zhu Jianshen wa ...

's reign (1465 – 1487) in China, and originally functioned as a vessel to drink wine from. Chenghua Chicken Cups were created in an imperial kiln in the

Jingdezhen porcelain Jingdezhen porcelain () is Chinese ceramics, Chinese porcelain produced in or near Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province in southern China. Jingdezhen may have produced pottery as early as the sixth century CE, though it is named after the reign name ...

factory, in Southern China. The Emperor Chenghua had the Chicken Cup created in the 15th century as an act of devotion for his empress mother who was recorded to have an appreciation for small objects and valued a simple design taste. Chicken cups are decorated with

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

s, hens and cocks. There are a

rooster The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

and a hen which feed their young chick, as they grub for worms and stretch out their wings. The chickens on the cup are interpreted as representing core dynastic Chinese values, such as continuing the family line and nurturing the young. There are currently thirteen authentic Chenghua cups held by museums and three cups owned privately. Chicken Cups from the Chenghua period do not have specific dates of production or identified artists recorded.

Cultural significance

During the Chenghua reign, the production of imperial wares had been influenced by the style of the previous reign during the

Xuande Xuande () (8 February 1426 – 17 January 1436) was the era name of the Xuande Emperor, the fifth emperor of the Ming dynasty of China. Comparison table Other eras contemporaneous with Xuande * Vietnam ** ''Thiên Khánh'' (天慶, 1426–142 ...

period (1426-1435). Toward the end of the Xuande Emperor's reign, the imperial porcelain industry in Jingdezhen began to expand production quantities. The imperial factory in

Jingdezhen Jingdezhen is a prefecture-level city, in northeastern Jiangxi province, with a total population of 1,669,057 (2018), bordering Anhui to the north. It is known as the "Porcelain Capital" because it has been producing Chinese ceramics for at leas ...

was formally established during the Ming Dynasty in 1392, and was located in the

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

province of China. The factory operated as the primary supplier of porcelain to the court, with pieces also reaching the elite class. Imperial porcelains were characterised by their use of motifs which were symbolic and hierarchical, as they were regulated by the court and thought to embody the refined achievements of predecessors within the field of pottery such as those of the early Qing. During the Ming Dynasty, imperial porcelains also featured an increased range of colours, palettes and designs which could be

underglaze Underglaze is a method of decorating pottery in which painted decoration is applied to the surface before it is covered with a transparent ceramic glaze and fired in a kiln. Because the glaze subsequently covers it, such decoration is completely ...

overglaze Overglaze decoration, overglaze enamelling or on-glaze decoration is a method of decorating pottery, most often porcelain, where the coloured decoration is applied on top of the already fired and glazed surface, and then fixed in a second firing ...

or slip painted. Jingdezhen porcelains had also gained global significance, with large quantities of

Chinese export porcelain Chinese export porcelain includes a wide range of Chinese porcelain that was made (almost) exclusively for export to Europe and later to North America between the 16th and the 20th century. Whether wares made for non-Western markets are covered ...

being exported to Asia, Europe and even Africa between the 15th and 17th centuries. The chicken cup was sought out after by Ming (1368-1644),

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

(1644-1911) emperors, especially the

Kangxi Emperor The Kangxi Emperor (4 May 1654– 20 December 1722), also known by his temple name Emperor Shengzu of Qing, born Xuanye, was the third emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the second Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1661 to 1 ...

(1662-1722), as well as other

Chinese literati The scholar-officials, also known as literati, scholar-gentlemen or scholar-bureaucrats (), were government officials and prestigious scholars in Chinese society, forming a distinct social class. Scholar-officials were politicians and governmen ...

collectors and connoisseurs in China. The popularity of the chicken cup also increased during the reign of the

Wanli Emperor The Wanli Emperor (; 4 September 1563 – 18 August 1620), personal name Zhu Yijun (), was the 14th Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1572 to 1620. "Wanli", the era name of his reign, literally means "ten thousand calendars". He was the ...

(1572-1620) who admired the Chenghua ceramics and was reported to have had a rare Chenghua chicken cup stolen from his dining table. Several references within Chinese literature describe the fortunes allocated by nobles and emperors in order to obtain chicken cups in the 17th century.

Replicas

Many chicken cups were reproduced during the Qing dynasty, where replication techniques were complex and continued to advance throughout the 18th century. Imitations of chicken cups as well as other blue and white Jingdezhen wares were prominent in Southern Chinese kilns which were sold to the South-East Asian consumer market. These wares were called Swatow wares, a European name derived from what was (wrongly) thought to be the port for exportation. Chicken cups were also subject to corruption amongst officials within the Imperial palace where records of cups stolen from the kilns exist. The cups currently continue to be reproduced fraudulently for sale at antique markets in China where they are sold as replicas of the original Chenghua cups.

Creation

Production of the chicken cup and other

during the Chenghua period involved a complicated process which was increasingly refined after the previous Xuande period. The design of the chicken cup was drawn onto the unfired cup using

cobalt blue Cobalt blue is a blue pigment made by sintering cobalt(II) oxide with aluminum(III) oxide (alumina) at 1200 °C. Chemically, cobalt blue pigment is cobalt(II) oxide-aluminium oxide, or cobalt(II) aluminate, CoAl2O4. Cobalt blue is lighter ...

, before the vessel was glazed and fired at high temperatures. Glazing techniques involved increasing levels of aluminium oxide whilst reducing

iron oxide Iron oxides are chemical compounds composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. All are black magnetic solids. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of whic ...

. This allowed the porcelain to withstand higher temperatures when fired and resulted in a white, dense ceramic. The high temperatures also caused the content of

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

and

calcium oxide Calcium oxide (CaO), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, Caustic (substance), caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term "''lime (material), lime''" co ...

present in the glaze to become reduced, which led to the cup's characteristic clear and soft sheen. The cocks, hens and chickens decorating the chicken cup were painted in a cobalt blue underglaze outline, before being filled in with enamel pigments. The softness of the underglaze blue was achieved through using natural Chinese cobalt, as imported cobalt such as the Persian blue or Sumatran blue used during the Qing dynasty to create deep, bright underglazes, were unavailable during the Chenghua period. The enamel pigments were applied and then fixed in a second low temperature firing .kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

Cultural significance

Replicas

Creation

Ownership

Collections

Sotheby's auctions

Iconography and interpretations

Style

Symbols

Composition

References