Lot 3124. A rare small Ru-type shallow dish, Yongzheng four-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1723-1735);5 3/8 in. (13.6 cm.) diam. Estimate $30,000 - $50,000. Price Realized $93,750. © Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The dish is sturdily potted with an everted rim above narrow, vertical lobes molded on the exterior, and is covered overall, including the base, in an even, sky-blue glaze, which pools to a slightly deeper color in the recesses on the exterior, and stops in a neat line above the brown-dressed foot rim. 

Provenance: John Sparks, London.
Sydney L. Moss, Ltd., London.
Formerly in the Langsdorf Collection, no. 109.

Note: Stoutly potted dishes of this type were intended to serve as trays for small flower jardinières or flower pots. See, for example, the Yonzheng-marked teadust-glazed jardinière and stand sold in these rooms, 20 March 2001, lot 274, and the Yongzheng-marked red-glazed flower pot and tray illustrated in Catalog of the Special Exhibition of K'ang-Hsi, Yung-Cheng and Ch'ien-Lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the Palace Museum, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, p. 72, no. 35. See, also, a similar Yongzheng-marked 'sky-blue'-glazed dish of similar shape and size and  sold at Christie's New York, 13-14 September 2014, lot 1540. Unlike all of the aforementioned dishes, which have plain exteriors, the present dish is unusual amongst the group for having a lobed exterior.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 15 - 16 March 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza