Kangxi six-character mark and of the period|Thinly potted with flared rim and straight foot, exquisitely painted in blue and enamelled colours around the exterior with a gnarled prunus tree issuing white blossoms amidst rocks and clumps of narcissus, the reverse inscribed with a poem. 6.6cm (2 5/8in) diam.|清康熙 五彩花神盃青花「大清康熙年製」楷書款 Provenance: an English private collection來源： 英國私人收藏Month cups depicting seasonal flowers accompanied by pertinent two-lined poems represent a classic design of the Kangxi period. This delicately potted piece depicts the prunus tree of the first month, and the poem reads and can be translated as follows:Su yan xue ning shu, qing xiang feng man zhi.'Simple beauty like a tree frozen with snow.Branches moving in the wind full of clear fragrance.'A full set of month cups, in the Palace Museum, Bejing, is illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong: Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p.65, pl.48. A set from the Sir Percival David Collection and now in the British Museum, London, is published in the Illustrated Catalogue of Qing Enamelled Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1991, pl.815; another in the Idemitsu Museum of Art, Tokyo, is published in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl.221.Compare with a very similar 'prunus tree' month cup, Kangxi, which was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2013, lot 3092. See another similar example of a 'prunus tree' month cup, Kangxi, which was sold at Christie's New York, 14-15 September 2017, lot 1223.