carved in openwork with three handles, each in the form of a chilong with a curling furcated tail, clambering on the sides with its paws and head resting on the rim, one grasping a lingzhi in its mouth

Jade cups of this type are notable for their close resemblance to Yuan dynasty jade and porcelain predecessors. A prototype, carved with two chilong handles, from the collection of Musée Guimet, Paris, was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Chinese Jade Throughout the Ages, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1975, cat. no. 326, where it is noted that qingbai and jade vessels appear to have been produced concurrently and continued to be produced throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties. For a Yuan porcelain prototype, see one from the Barlow collection and another from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, included in Stacey Pierson (ed.), Qingbai Ware. Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, London, 2002, pls. 41 and 42.

A similar cup, in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, was included in the exhibition Chinese Jades from Han to Ch’ing, Asia House Gallery, New York, 1980, cat. no. 139; and another was sold in these rooms, 11th December 1984, lot 76.