A rare pair of Ming-style underglaze blue iron-red-ground dishes, Qianlong seal marks and period (1736-1795)
Lot 45. A rare pair of Ming-style underglaze blue iron-red-ground dishes, Qianlong seal marks and period (1736-1795). Diameter 4 1/2 in., 11.4 cm. Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 USD. Lot sold 122,500 USD. Photo Sotheby's
each painted in cobalt blue on the interior with simulated 'heaping and piling' with a bouquet of ribbon-tied lotus and water weeds, the cavetto with composite floral scrolls and a band of classic scroll at the rim, the exterior with a repeated floral scroll and a key-fret border just below the rim, reserved on a rich iron-red ground leaving the rim and base white, seal mark in underglaze blue (2).
Property from the Estate of William and Jennifer Shaw
Provenance: Christie's Swire Hong Kong, 24th October 1993, lot 831.
Note: It is extremely rare to find dishes of this pattern reserved on iron-red grounds, though these can be found reserved on yellow grounds. See, for example, the Qianlong-marked dish with similar pattern but of larger size illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong, 1987, vol. I, pl. 109.
Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 11 september 2012