Lot 123. A fine and extremely rare Imperial Yellow Chrysanthemum Dish, Mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735). Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 USD. Lot sold 262,400 USD. Photo: Sothebys.

delicately potted, the shallow dish crisply molded with forty-four fluted petals radiating from the slightly sunken well to form a foliate rim, correspondingly lobed on the exterior and continuing to the footrim, applied overall in an even bright lemon-yellow glaze, the base glazed white; 7 in., 17.9 cm.

Provenance: From a Midwest collection.

Note: Chrysanthemum dishes of this form were made in a wide range of colours during Yongzheng's reign. See twelve Yongzheng dishes of this form, in twelve kinds of glazes including one in yellow glaze, illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 145. Six similar Yongzheng dishes are illustrated in Wenwu, 1984, no. 10, o. 37, fig. 6, in a discussion of Ming and Qing porcelain in the Palace Museum, Beijing, where it is noted that the records of the Qing Palace workshops for the 27th day of the 12th month of the 11th year of the Yongzheng (1733) include an Imperial decree that Nian Xiyao, Minister in the Zaobanchu (Imperial Household Department), should 'send  the twelve colors of chrysanthemum dishes, one of each color, for the inspection of the permanent guardian of the treasure and chief eunuch Samuha' and that an 'order to deliver be granted to the place where the porcelain objects are made for forty pieces to be fired of every type according to the samples'. 

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 31 mars 2005