Lot 2932. A fine and rare doucai 'Lotus' dish, Yongzheng six-character mark within double-circles and of the period (1723-1735). Estimate HKD 800,000 - HKD 1,200,000 (USD 110,000 - USD 150,000). Price Realised HKD 1,820,000(USD 234,736). © Christie's Images Ltd 2011.

With shallow, rounded sides flaring to a slightly everted rim, the interior decorated with a central lotus blossom surrounded by four similar blossoms borne on enclosing underglaze blue stems with scrolling tendrils and green leaves forming a densely patterned medallion and repeated in a frieze of eight blossoms around the exterior below a narrow border of C-scrolls and dots, all in iron-red, yellow and green glaze and underglaze blue of bright tone within blue double-line borders - 6 1/2 in. (15.6 cm) diam., box.  

Provenance: The Collection of Henri Maspero (1882-1945)
S. Marchant & Son, London, 2007   

Notes: It is unusual to find a dish of this pattern of such small size. An example was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, The Paul and Helen Bernat Collection of Important Qing Imperial Porcelain and Works of Art, 15 November 1988, lot 16. A larger example in the Chang Foundation Collection is illustrated by J. Spencer, Selected Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, no. 134 (27.1 cm. diam.); another is illustrated by J. Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, no. 210 (27 cm. diam.).