Cup with Cover

China

1810 - 1830

  • Titles Cup with Cover (Descriptive)
  • Artist China
  • Medium porcelain
  • Dimensions Overall: 2 3/4 x 3 3/4 in. (7 x 9.5 cm)
  • Credit Line Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William M. Silsbee, 1983.86.2a-b
  • Work Type cup with cover
  • Classification Containers

See More of the Collection

"Ginger" Jar with Banana-Leaf Neck, Lotus-Pattern Shoulder and Three Friends of Winter (Pine, Bamboo and Plum) Each Forming Characters (Fortune (Fu 福), Prosperity (Lu 祿), Longevity (Shou 壽) with their Trunks, also with mountains at base and lingzi fungus
Lord Brahma, Manjari Sharma, archival inkjet print
Ot-4 Although Sotheby's, in London, titled this piece a "peacock" at auction, it is quite obviously a turkey. But even correcting the name does not solve the mystery of the piece's function. A bird of this shape is, in English, of course, known as a turkey; in Hindi, a turkey is called Peru. Although most experts believe that turkeys are native to North America, the fowl are raised in some regions of India, such as Kerala, today, and may have been raised in India earlier than on record. The next question regards the purpose of this piece. The cylinder rising from the bird's body resembles a rosewater sprinkler or Fulani, but, although there is a screw-able finial shaped as a flowerhead to allow for the addition of liquid, there are no "sprinkler" holes on the top, since the seam on the beast is only a decorative element.
Listening (Kiku), Watanabe Sadao, stencil on paper