Lot 3181. A doucai and iron-red 'Five Bats' saucer dish, Mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 16.6 cm., 6 1/2 in. Estimate 250,000-350,000 HKD (24,464 — 34,250 EUR). Lot sold 740,000 HKD (72,415 EUR).  Photo Sotheby's

the rounded sides rising from a tapered foot, decorated in the centre with five iron-red bats in flight around a gnarled peach tree, issuing from the side of a cliff above a green sea with crested waves breaking over jagged rocks, the exterior with four fruiting sprigs each enclosing a stylised shou character within a flowerhead, alternating with pairs of confronting iron-red bats, inscribed to the base in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within double circles. 

Note: Compare a pair of Yongzheng saucer dishes of the same design from the E.T. Chow Collection, sold in our rooms, 19th May 1981, lot 557. Another example, in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, is illustrated in Rose Kerr, Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1986, no. 86. Another is illustrated in Theresa Tse Bartholomew, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 2006, p. 221, no. 7.55.1 where the author explains that the iconography refers to the double birthday greetings "May your blessing be as deep as the Eastern Sea, and may you live as old as the Southern Mountain.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art Hong Kong | 04 avr. 2012