A pair of blue and white 'three friends of winter' saucer dishes, Guangxu six-character marks and of the period. Photo courtesy Bonhams.

Each with a central circular cartouche featuring pine trees, prunus, bamboo and lingzhi amongst rockworks within two double-circled borders, the exterior painted with a continuous scene of a lady seated within a dwelling isolated by balustrades, peering at two boys catching butterflies in the wilderness beneath a willow tree, the base with a six-character Imperial kaishu mark in underglaze-blue. 17.8cm diam. (2). Estimate HK$ 250,000 - 500,000 (€24,000 - 48,000)

See a comparable pair of blue and white 'three friends of winter' dishes dated to the Tongzhi period with similar designs, in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, illustrated in Qingdai Ciqi Shangjian, Hong Kong, 1994, p.259, no.342. See also another comparable example of a blue and white 'three friends of winter' dish dated to the Xuantong period with similar designs, in the Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, illustrated in Treasures in the Royalty. The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p.489. 

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART. Hong Kong. 24 Nov 2013 14:00 CST