Drink Expensive Tea with an Expensive Cup – It Doesn't Change the Taste
This picture doesn't need much introduction, Liu Yihui drinks tea with the Jing Cylinder cup.
He said that this cup of 280 million Hong Kong dollars 'is incredibly smooth, also soft and mellow, words cannot describe it.'
Although it was originally a wine cup during the Hongchang year, using the Jing Cylinder cup, Liu Yihui is not ↓
Ma Wude
To tell the truth, twenty years ago, I saw it once.
A friend took me to a Japanese collector's house, who knew I was coming, and asked the servants to bring a tea tray with a cup of welcoming tea on it. The cup holding the tea was this Colorful Jing Cylinder cup.
I, who have seen so many outstanding people, was still very cautious.
At the auction, he bid 5.3 million RMB for this cup, I knew that this cup was in his hands, I didn't expect him to take it in this way.
This is probably the most expensive tea I've ever drunk in my life.
Let's start with the owner of the Jing Cylinder cup that Liu Yihui bid for.
Valuable Colorful Jing Cylinder cup with Hongchang period
In 1949, Chou Yanzhi went to Hong Kong to develop, and a pair of Hongchang period Colorful Jing Cylinder cups were displayed on a merchant's stall in the Hong Kong antique market for a long time and were ignored. Fortunately, one day they were discovered by Chou Yanzhi, who bought them for 1000 Hong Kong dollars.
Chou Yanzhi was thought by many to have bought a fake or a replica, which caused some criticism, but he didn't pay attention to it, always believing in his own judgment. Later, after bringing the treasure home, he compared it with historical records and specially made a packaging box for it, with his own name and handwriting on it. He has always kept this treasure with him and treasured it for nearly half a century. Later, it was passed to Leopold Dreyfus's husband, Leopo, and he made a fortune in the collection circle!
That is the Leopold Dreyfus wife mentioned above;
In November 1980, this Jing Cylinder cup was auctioned at the Hong Kong Sotheby's auction for 5.28 million Hong Kong dollars, and the bidder was Japanese collector, known as 'Little Napoleon', Sakamoto Go.
In April 1999, this complete and well-preserved Jing Cylinder cup was auctioned for 29.17 million Hong Kong dollars at the Hong Kong Sotheby's auction, becoming the highest transaction record for ancient Chinese porcelain in the international auction market at that time, and the bidder was the owner of the Mei Ren Ding family, Swiss banker Zuellig brothers.
Let's not introduce this part, you all understand.
The Victoria and Albert Museum in Britain has one, and it's not quite authentic to the Hongchang period.
The British Victoria and Albert Museum's Jing Cylinder cup is basically okay.
The Jing Cylinder cup in the Taipei National Palace Museum is placed in the back because it's the highlight.
Regarding how many Jing Cylinder cups there are, there are many different sayings.
Some say there are 8; some say there are 11. As for how many there are, perhaps only the Taipei National Palace Museum warehouse manager knows.
However, the ones on display are 6.
The Jing Cylinder cup wandering among the people
Now, besides the museum's collection, how many Jing Cylinder cups are known to be circulating in the market?
One is:
Four.
One is in the British Museum;
One was bought by Liu Yihui;
One is in the hands of Hong Kong collector, Mr. Baile;
And there is one more, which is a pair originally, belonging to Dreyfus' old collection, was sold at the Sotheby's London auction on March 2, 1971 for 2 million 600 thousand pounds, and now nobody knows where it is.
Besides, it is said that the collector BAUR has one.
In 2009, a company called Bukowskis in Europe auctioned one for 850,000 pounds, the buyer's identity is unknown.
So, we can roughly estimate that there are less than 20 authentic Jing Cylinder cups known today! Less than the number of Yuzhou cups!
BAUR
2009Bukowskis85
20
