A pair of famille rose yellow-ground dishes, Jiaqing six-character seal marks in iron red and of the period (1796-1820). Estimate $12,000 – $18,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The interior is decorated with a flower head surrounded by linked lotus scroll within a narrow gilt border below the plain cavetto of subtle ivory color and a band of iron-red and green foliate scroll at the rim. The exterior is decorated with scrolling lotus sprays separating four roundels enclosing the characters, wan nian jia zi, all reserved on a lemon-yellow ground continuing onto the short tapered foot. 7 5/8 in. (19.6 cm.) diam.

Provenance: The Otto Pierre Nicholas Berkelbach van der Sprenkel (1906–1978) Collection.
Pamela van der Sprenkel estate, Canberra, Australia, December 2001.

Note: The characters, wan nian jia zi, may be translated as, 'ten thousand years of the jiazi cyclical year.' Dishes of this pattern, although with slight variations in decoration are well known. Compare a similar Jiaqing-marked dish, although with landscape reserves amidst lotus scroll, reserved on a coral ground, in the collection of the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pp. 366-7.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 17 - 18 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza