Cui Yingying stands over Zhang Sheng holding up a fly whisk in her right hand, while her left arm is round his right shoulder, with her hair dressed high. He is half kneeling and looking up, his hat resembling an open book. She is enamelled on the biscuit, her green robes with chequer-pattern borders and floral medallion, a yellow skirt below with a phoenix medallion. He also wears green robes reserved with clouds and floral medallions. The rectangular pedestal base has shou medallions on a diaper ground.

These two lovers are from the Romance of the Western Chamber, a very popular subject in Chinese porcelain of the Kangxi and Yongzheng periods. A blue and white dish from the Salting Collection in the Victoria & Albert Museum (C.727-1910) shows them in the same position and is illustrated by Craig Clunas in ‘The Romance of the Western Chamber, a Literary Theme in Chinese Porcelain Decoration’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, Vol. 40 (1981-1982), pp. 69-86, fig. 13. Clunas explains this story and how it was developed and used in decoration.

Literature: Anthony du Boulay, The Duberly Collection of Chinese Art at Winchester College (Winchester, 2019), pp. 90-91

Provenance: Bequeathed as part of the Duberly Collection, 1978; purchased by Major Montagu and Lady Eileen Duberly from John Sparks, 24 June 1952 (£475)

Location: Treasury, Gallery 2