An unusual underglaze-blue and copper-red-decorated celadon-ground dish, Kangxi period, circa 1675-1700. Estimate $6,000 – $8,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The large dish, with a wide everted rim, is decorated in the center over raised slip with a groom holding a crop and leading a horse that appears to bow in submission, all set against a celadon-glazed ground. The base bears an apocryphal Xuande mark. 11 in. (28 cm.) diam. Lot 3593

Provenance: S. Marchant & Son, Ltd., London, 1989.
Collection of Julia and John Curtis.

Notes: A related dish decorated in the same palette with the same technique over a raised slip, is illustrated in S. Marchant & Son, Exhibition of Transitional Wares for the Japanese and Domestic Markets, London, 1989, p. 41, no. 58. It depicts, somewhat off-center, a kneeling foreigner carrying a tray on his head bearing tribute items of coral, a pearl and two rhinoceros horn cups. Like the present example, it also bears an apocryphal Xuande mark.

Christie's. AN ERA OF INSPIRATION: 17TH-CENTURY CHINESE PORCELAINS FROM THE COLLECTION OF JULIA AND JOHN CURTIS, 16 March 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza.