Lot 91. A ruby-back famille-rose dish, Qing dynasty, 18th century. Estimate 50,000 — 70,000 HKD (5,645 - 7,902 EUR). Lot sold 500,000 HKD (56,446 EUR). Photo Sotheby's

thinly potted with an eggshell body, the shallow rounded sides resting on a tapered foot, brightly painted to the interior with two butterflies hovering amongst a rose, an aster and various other flowers and leafy sprays, the exterior applied with a mottled ruby-pink glaze stopping neatly at the foot, the base reserved in white; 15.7 cm, 6 1/4  in.

Provenance: Sharp, 1962.
Bluett & Sons Ltd, London, 1962 (£90).
Collection of Roger Pilkington (1928-69), from 1962 (£275).

Note: Ruby-backed dishes of this type include one in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Guide to Pottery and Porcelain in the Far East, London, 1924, pl. 127; a pair from the collection of Harold A. Hartog, included in the exhibitionTausend Jahre Chinesische Keramik aus Privatbesitz, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, 1974, pl. 212; another, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society Exhibition of Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty, London, 1951, cat. no. 53, and sold in our London rooms, 13th June 1989, lot 374; and a fourth dish from the collection of Theodore Seligman, sold in these rooms, 6th February 1951, lot 82.