A pair of polychrome enamel chrysanthemum dishes, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period. Photo Sotheby's

each evenly potted with fluted sides resembling the petals of a chrysanthemum flower, radiating around a slightly recessed centre and supported on a short tapered foot, variously painted to the interior with a bird perched on flowering prunus or camellia branches, the rim gilt and the base inscribed with a double-circle. Quantité: 2 - 26cm., 10 ¼ in. Estimation 40,000 — 60,000 GBP

The charming design adorning these dishes is typical of the album leaves showing birds and flowers that first appeared in the Song dynasty and in turn inspired similar painted designs on Cizhou pillows. Known as the ‘bird of joy’, when the magpie is depicted atop a prunus tree it represents the wish, ‘may your joy reach up to the top of your eyebrows’, while the wish for eternal youth is symbolised when pictured with camellia.

A slightly smaller pair of dishes of this type, from the Evill Collection, was sold in these rooms, 19th September 1960, lot 86, and again, 30th November 1965, lot 92; and another was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 28th November 1970, lot 161. See also two pairs of dishes decorated with related designs, but of circular form, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, the first, 12th/13th May 1976, lot 259, and the second 21st May 1979, lot 146; and another single dish from the collection of Herschel V. Johnson, sold in these rooms, 21st February 1967, lot 100.

Provenance: Collection of Major Sir Alfred Hammond Aykroyd (1894-1965), acquired circa 1950-1955.
Sotheby's London, 17th May 1966, lot 218.
John Sparks, London.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. London, 14 mai 2014 - www.sothebys.com