A Small Yellow-Ground Green-Enamelled and Underglaze-Blue Dish, Yongzheng Mark and Period - Photo Sotheby's

the shallow rounded sides rising from a short foot to a lipped rim, the central medallion enclosing a meandering composite floral scroll repeated at the well, encircled with a green-enamelled classic scroll band at the rim, the exterior similarly decorated, within green-enamelled keyfret and a classic scroll bands, all reserved on a bright yellow ground, the white base inscribed with a six-character Yongzheng mark within a double circle; 13.6cm., 5 3/8 in. Estimation:  30,000 - 50,000 GBP

PROVENANCE: Christie's New York, 3rd June 1993, lot 275.

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: The present dish is especially fine for its striking combination of blue, yellow and green enamels and for the perfectly arranged Ming-style flower scroll design painted in the characteristic ‘heaping and piling’ technique. Yongzheng dishes of this small size and design are rare, although a closely related example, but of much larger dimensions, from the Riesco collection, was sold in these rooms, 11th December 1984, lot 383, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 8th October 1990, lot 360. Another dish of this form and decoration was sold in our New York rooms, 5th  June 1985, lot 309; and a third was sold at Christie’s New York, 3rd December 1992, lot 341. See also a bowl decorated with a similar design, with a Yongzheng reign mark and of the period, published in John Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol. 4, Geneva, 1975, pl. A 575.

This dish recalls the past in many ways. The design is copying one of the most striking decorative innovations of early fifteenth century wares, the flower scroll motif found on Yongle period blue-and-white dishes. For example, see a dish in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, included in the museum’s exhibition Blue and White, Chicago, 1985, cat. no. 22, where the author notes that vessels of this type were widely exported to the Near East and that their influence can be seen in Persia, Syria and Egypt. Another Yongle dish in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Dynasty Porcelain, vol. 1, Taipei, 1977, cat. no. 37; one in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, London, 1986, pl. 602; and a dish formerly in the Ardebil Shrine and now in the Iran Bastan Museum, Teheran, is published in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, vol. 4, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 189.

The use of underglaze-blue design on a striking yellow ground, as seen here, is also inspired by early Ming vessels; for example see a Xuande mark and period dish in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Minji meihin zuroku, vol. 2, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 99, painted with a leafy gardenia branch in deep cobalt blue in the centre surrounded by fruiting branches around the well all reserved on a brilliant clear yellow enamel ground. The use of green in the composition is likely to be a Yongzheng period innovation where the Qing artist has added a contemporary touch to the piece.

Sotheby's. Treasures of the Qing Court, A Personal Perspective. London | 07 nov. 2012, www.sothebys.com