Lot 2112. A Fine and Extremely Rare doucai 'Butterfly' Dish, Yongzheng six-character mark within double circles and of the period (1723-1735); 8 1/4 in. (20.8 cm.) diam., box. Estimate $1,100,000 - $1,500,000. Price Realized $1,246,352. © Christie's Image Lt 2013 

The dish is finely potted with shallow rounded sides and delicately enamelled in shades of green, yellow and iron-red outlined with cobalt of soft blue tone. The central interior medallion is decorated with an exotic 'beehive'-shaped peony bloom surrounded by four large butterflies in flight amidst smaller butterflies and floral sprigs including prunus, bamboo, pinks and peach blossom. The delicately potted sides are similarly decorated around the exterior with four butterflies in various attitudes of flight, each separated by two different floral sprays including peony, chrysanthemum, peach blossom, pinks and prunus with bamboo, all within single and double line borders. 

Provenance: Mrs. Mary Jane Morgan, New York (d. 1885)
The American Art Galleries, New York, 1886
Sold at Christie's London, 16 April 1980, lot 104
A Japanese private collection
A European private collection formed in the 1980s and 1990s

Literature: American Art Galleries, New York, Catalogue of the Art Collection formed by the late Mrs. Mary J. Morgan, 8 - 15 March 1886, Number 429.

Note: Mrs. Mary J. Morgan was married to the shipping and railroad magnate Charles Morgan, cousin of J. Pierpont Morgan. Her estate was sold from the 8th to 15th March 1886 through the American Art Galleries at Chickering Hall, New York for a total of US$1,205,909.42. The present doucai dish formed part of the collection of over three hundred Chinese ceramics and works of art. Many art works from the collection are now housed in important US museum collection including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Boston Museum of Fine Art.

No other Yongzheng doucai-decorated dish of this rare pattern appears to have been published. A Yongzheng-marked blue and white dish of the same size pencilled with this decoration but without the addition of overglaze enamels is in the Nanjing Museum Collection, illustrated by Xu Huping, The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, page 149. A much smaller (9.2 cm. diam.) Yongzheng-marked blue and white dish of very similar design was sold at Christie's New York, 15 September 2011, lot 934. Another similarly-sized Yongzheng doucai dish of slightly differing design with four large butterflies amid petals and confronted butterfly roundels on the exterior, was sold at Sotheby's London, 7 June 2000, lot 129.

Butterflies were a favoured choice in the Chinese decorative art repertoire, since they provide a rebus which doubles any good wish and also suggest an eightieth birthday. The combination of butterfly and peony on the dish provides the pun for fudie fugui, 'May you have an accumulation of blessings, wealth and high social status'. This auspicious design was likely to be inspired by the Chenghua doucai wares with similar decorations, such as a Chenghua-marked box similarly decorated with various butterflies and flowers on the top of the cover and the sides in the doucai technique, from the Beijing Palace Museum Collection, illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 186, no. 169.

The appearance of butterflies on other Yongzheng famille rose and doucai porcelains is incorporated into a myriad of designs. However whilst they are often depicted in flight among flowering branches, with a few rare exceptions, they usually do not feature as the primary decorative motif. When they are used as a primary design such as on the present dish, the execution of the painting is without exception of the very highest standard. An example of the exceptional refinement achieved in the painting of butterflies can be seen on a Yongzheng famille rose bowl with medallions depicting pairs of butterflies, illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 78, no. 68; and on another bowl of the same pattern sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 April 2000, lot 588. Compare also the superb painting of the butterflies on a Qianlong-marked famille rosedouble-gourd vase sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2007, lot 1375.

Christie's. IMPERIAL SALE; IMPORTANT CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART. 29 May 2013. Convention Hall.