天價“雞缸杯”將現(xiàn)身蘇富比春拍(圖

　　Among the deep-pocketed collectors of Chinese antique ceramics, few pieces arouse as much excitement as the small Ming dynasty-era bowls commonly known as the 'chicken cups.'

　　在中國古代瓷器收藏圈里，鮮有藏品能夠像明成化“雞缸杯”(chicken cup)那樣引得一眾富豪收藏家趨之若鶩。

　　The bowls, small enough to be held comfortably in the palm of the hand, were created between 1465 and 1487 and are named for the chickens painted on their sides. Only 19 are known to exist, and of those just four are in private hands, with the rest in museum collections.

　　雞缸杯不足一掌大小，燒制于明代成化時期(公元1465至1487年)，因其杯壁上畫有公雞母雞，故稱雞缸杯。現(xiàn)存于世的雞缸杯只有19只，其中四只在私人藏家手中，其余均被博物館收藏。

　　

But one of those four will be going up for sale on April 8 at a Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong and is estimated to fetch as much as US$38.5 million.

　　但這四只雞缸杯中將有一只現(xiàn)身4月8日的香港蘇富比(Sotheby)拍賣會，估價高達(dá)3,850萬美元。

　　Part of the Meiyintang collection owned by Switzerland's Zuellig family, this same bowl was also the last chicken cup to go up for auction, in 1999. At a Sotheby's sale in Hong Kong, it brought US$3.7 million -- at the time, a record for a Chinese porcelain.

　　這只明成化斗彩雞缸杯是瑞士裕利(Zuellig)家族“玫茵堂”(Meiyintang)的藏品，1999年最后一次現(xiàn)身拍賣會的雞缸杯也正是這一只。在當(dāng)年的香港蘇富比拍賣會上，這只雞缸杯拍出了370萬美元的天價，刷新中國瓷器世界拍賣紀(jì)錄。

　　Prices for Chinese ceramics have skyrocketed since, but reverence for these cups has remained constant since imperial times. Several works of Chinese literature reference the chicken cups, often describing how emperors and nobles spent fortunes to obtain them in the 17th century.

　　此后中國瓷器價格一路飆高，但雞缸杯的尊貴地位自帝王時代以來從未被動搖。幾部中國文學(xué)作品曾經(jīng)提到過雞缸杯，均是描寫17世紀(jì)的皇帝和貴族如何散盡千金，就為得到這樣一只小小的杯子。