Lot 127. A pair of rare doucai dishes, Yongzheng marks and period (1723-1735), 16.7 cm, 6 1/2  in. Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 GBP. Photo: Sotheby's.

each with shallow rounded sides rising from a short tapered foot, the interior painted in underglaze blue and bright enamels with a central circular medallion with a multi-coloured ribbon spiral bordered with yellow petals, the exterior with two lotus sprays alternating with three interlinking lozenges with entwined foliate scrolls, the base with six-character mark in underglaze blue. Quantité: 2

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 29th February 1972, lot 250 (£320).

Note: This charming pair of dishes closely follow in both design and choice of palette the celebrated doucai wares of the Chenghua reign, such as a dish excavated from the waste heaps of the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, included in the exhibition A Legacy of Chenghua, The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. C116.

A closely related example was sold in these rooms, 3rd April 1979, lot 169; another was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th May 2006, lot 1435; and a pair was sold in our New York rooms, 14th September 2011, lot 342. See also a reconstructed dish of this type, with Yongzheng mark and of the period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong bowuguan cang. Gu taoci ciliao xuancui [Selection of ancient ceramic materials from the Palace Museum], vol. II, Beijing, 2005, pl. 147.

Sotheby's; Important Chinese Art, Londres, 10 mai 2017, 02:00 PM