Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 30 November 2011, Hong Kong
A fine and rare doucai 'Qilin' dish, Yongzheng six-character mark within double-circles and of the period (1723-1735)
Lot 2934. A fine and rare doucai 'Qilin' dish, Yongzheng six-character mark within double-circles and of the period (1723-1735). Estimate HKD 2,500,000 - HKD 3,000,000 (USD 330,000 - USD 390,000). Price Realised HKD 2,900,000 (USD 374,030). © Christie's Images Ltd 2011.
The dish is painted on the interior with a mythical qilin galloping over a storming sea, its back supporting a ribboned book on a saddle cloth, the background with craggy rocks rising out of breaking waves, all enclosed within the broad everted mouth rim decorated with scrolling clouds, the exterior with further swirling waves divided at each cardinal point with a craggy rock bou - der, the edge of mouth rim gilded - 7 7/8 in. (20 cm.) diam., box
Provenance: Previously sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 13 November 1990, lot 336
Literature: Sotheby's Hong Kong: Twenty Years, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 196, pl. 264
Exhibited: London, Recent Acquisitions, S. Marchant & Son, 2006, p. 84, no. 45
Notes: The qilin is a very auspicious animal as it is said to live for a thousand years and to be the noblest of all animals and therefore to represent perfect goodness. It was believed to tread so lightly and carefully that it left no footprints and it damaged no living things with its hooves. The appearance of a qilin was supposed to be the sign of a virtuous ruler and the book on the back of the qilin symbolises knowledge and accomplishment. The combined images allude to a virtuous and learned emperor. A similar dish also with gilded mouth rim is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 238, no. 218. Dishes of this same pattern but without the gilding are published. Compare an example from the Chang Foundation, illustrated by J. Spencer, Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, 1990, no. 140; and another from the Edward T. Chow Collection, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1981, lot 560.