Lot 3029. A very rare ruby-backed famille rose ‘European subject’ dish, Qianlong six-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1736-1795); 7 5/8 in. (19.3 cm.) diam., box. Estimate HKD 6,000,000 - HKD 8,000,000 (USD 774,097 - USD 1,032,130) © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The interior of the dish is finely decorated in the famille rosepalette with a European gentleman and lady seated at ease leaning against a garden stool and boy hiding behind the man’s back, behind them are large porcelain vessels and stands supporting a peony-filled vase and a dish holding finger citron and peaches. In the foreground are two glass bottles, a goblet and a jug. The exterior is covered with rose-pink enamel.

Provenance: E.T. Chow Collection, Geneva

Literature: Asia Society, Archives of the Chinese Society of America, XIII, New York, 1959, p. 49
Ce´cile and Michel Beurdele, Giuseppe Castiglione: A Jesuit Painter at the Court of the Chinese Emperors, London, 1972, pl. XX, 1
A Connoisseur’s Guide to Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1984, p. 240, pls. 94-95

Note: Very few dishes with this particular subject have been published. A similar famille rose dish dated to the Qianlong period, painted with the same subject but with the figures and objects in reverse order, is illustrated by J. Ayers in The Baur Collection: Chinese Ceramics, vol. 4, no. A 608. A variant of this motif is seen on a famille rose dish dated to the Yongzheng period, in the collection of Toguri Museum, Tokyo, and illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Toguri Collection, Tokyo, 1988, pp. 122 and 185, pl. 154. On the Toguri dish, which is perhaps the prototype of the Baur and present dishes, the male and female figures are depicted standing in front of the large porcelain vessels and other objects, without the company of a little boy.

Christie's. The Imperial Sale / Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 31 May 2017, Convention Hall