"Not seen for a day, such as three autumns", "three autumns" originally means time, one autumn and March, and three autumns refer to September. Because autumn and March are always accompanied by the two traditional festivals of the Midyear Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, the ancients said that autumn always carries some thoughts. During the Ming Dynasty, some people put the autumn into the porcelain, that is the Doucai Sanqiu Cup.
Speaking of Chenghua Doucai, it is the darling of the collection world, among which the Chenghua chicken bowl cup is the dream of all collectors, and is sought after by many people. Chenghua Doucai Sanqiu Cup, although not so famous, but its preciousness can be comparable to the chicken bowl cup, can be described as the pearl of the Doucai industry.
Doucai is also known as "teasing color", named after the process method of making porcelain, Doucai porcelain is a combination of underglaze blue and white and glaze colorful porcelain varieties. Emperor Chenghua was very fond of porcelain, and had a very high aesthetic aesthetic of porcelain color, especially the use of Doucai to the extreme, and the fired Doucai porcelain enjoyed high praise at that time and later generations.
Chenghua has no large pieces", all of which are based on small utensils such as wine glasses, so there are many styles of Ming Chenghua Doucai cups, and Sanqiu Cup is one of them. The Doucai Sanqiu Cup is about 43cm, diameter 68cm, foot diameter 26cm, because it depicts the scenery in the courtyard or garden in autumn, and autumn generally lasts for three months, so it is called the "Three Autumn Cup".
Doucai Sanqiu Cup is a skimming mouth, deep belly, thin bottom, and circle feet. There is no ornamentation in the cup, and the outer wall is painted with two groups of colorful mountain stone floral patterns, and the colorful butterflies are dancing, which is a rural atmosphere, which is pleasing to the eye. The blue and white hair color is elegant, and the glaze color is red, yellow, and purple. The "purple" is the purple material applied to the butterfly wings on the body of the cup, the color is like hematite, and the surface is dry and dull. This is one of the most obvious characteristics that cannot be imitated by later generations.
The shape of the Doucai Sanqiu Cup is light and delicate, and the carcass is as thin as cicada wings, which is also its charm. Due to the personal preference of Chenghua Emperor Zhu Jianshen, Chenghua porcelain is the pursuit of fine workmanship. Therefore, the country's financial resources do not hesitate to make porcelain, the carcass is used in Jingdezhen's Macang soil, after firing into tooth yellow, this soil has been exhausted after the formation, making the Sanqiu Cup a swan song through the ages.
At present, it is known that there are only 3 Chenghua Doucai Sanqiu Cups in the world, of which 2 are in the Palace Museum in Beijing and 1 in the Palace Museum in Taipei. Chenghua Doucai, which is famous in ancient and modern times at home and abroad, is a mythical existence in the porcelain and collection circles, and the Sanqiu Cup as the pearl of the Doucai industry is the most precious porcelain in the world.