Lot 113. The Leshantang Collection. A fine biscuit-enamelled sancai dish, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722). 24,8 cm. Lot Sold 1,905,000 HKD (Estimate 500,000 - 700,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2024

potted with shallow rounded sides rising from a tapered foot to a flared rim, decorated to the interior with boughs of plump pomegranates and peaches, painted in vibrant tones of yellow, turquoise, green and aubergine, against an incised ground rendered with five-clawed dragons writhing amidst clouds, the exterior similarly decorated with camellia and rose sprays against incised dragons and lotus lappets, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark in underglaze blue within a double circle.

Provenance: Collection of Edward T. Chow (1910-80).

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 25th November 1980, lot 156.

Literature: The Leshantang Collection, Taipei, 2005, pl. 43.

Note: Painted with auspicious fruits symbolising the abundance of offspring, in an elegant palette of understated beauty, the present dish belongs to one of the most representative types of porcelain from the imperial kilns of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662-1722). It was first incised in body, both inside and outside, with fine designs of lively dragons and inscribed on the base with the imperial reign mark in cobalt blue. Only the base was then covered with a clear transparent glaze, and the pieces submitted to a first firing at a high porcelain temperature. The biscuit-fired areas were then applied with a coating of opaque cream-coloured glaze, painted with fruiting branches in brown outlines and coloured washes and fired a second time at a lower enamel temperature.

Similar decoration can also be found on bowls, but due to the complicated and long manufacturing process, such dishes and bowls were produced in fairly small numbers. Yet they are represented in prominent museums and private collections, for example, in the Taipei Palace Museum, illustrated in Enamelled Ware of the Ch’ing Dynasty, vol. I, Hong Kong, 1969, pl. 8; in the Tokyo National Museum, included in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 158; and in the exhibition Splendour of the Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1992, cat. no. 144.

A similar dish from the British Rail Pension Fund, exhibited on loan at the Dallas Museum of Art 1985-88, was sold twice in our rooms, most recently in these rooms, 9th October 2012, lot 29, and is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 4, London, 1994-2010, pl. 1818, together with a matching bowl, vol. 2, pl. 889. Further examples include one illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Ming and Ch’ing Porcelain from the Collection of the T.Y. Chao Family Foundation, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1978, cat. no. 70, and sold in these rooms, 19th May 1987, lot 302; another example sold twice in these rooms, 29th October 1991, lot 227 and again, 3rd April 2019, lot 3311; and a pair sold in these rooms, 11th April 2008, lot 2918.

Sotheby's. The Leshantang Collection (II) – Treasures of Chinese Art from the Tsai I-Ming Collection, Hong Kong, 9 April 2024.