Lot 2804. A fine and rare yellow-enamelled chrysanthemum dish, Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1723-1735); 6 ½ in. (16.3 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 1,800,000 - HKD 2,800,000. Price realised HKD 5,500,000 © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The dish is moulded with twenty-four flutes rising from a gently tapered foot, covered inside and out with an even bright enamel of lemon-yellow tone with the exception of the base of the foot ring. 

Provenance: Frank Caro, successor to CT Loo, New York, 1960s. 

Exhibited: San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas, 1984-2017

Note: The present dish with wider petals is the rarer type among chrysanthemum dishes from the Yongzheng period, as most of the other monochrome examples are found with narrower flutes, such as the set of twelve dishes in the Palace Museum, Beijing, each is in a different colour, illustrated in Qingdai yuyao ciqi, vol.1, pt. II, Beijing, 2005, pp. 414-415, no. 194. Other Yongzheng-marked yellow-enamelled dishes in this form include one in the Baur Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, vol. 3, Geneva, 1972, no. A486; one from the Collection of James W. and Marilynn Alsdorf, sold at Sotheby’s New York, 23 September 1997, lot 306; and another sold at Christie’s London, 6 June 2000, lot 384. Compare, also, other Yongzheng-marked monochrome dishes in this form, such as a pair of celadon-glazed dishes sold at Sotheby’s London, 16 May 2012, lot 170; and three white-glazed examples, one in the Meiyintang collection, illustrated by Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4(II), pp. 320-321, no. 1781, and two sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 30 April 1991, lot 84, and 9 October 2007, lot 1533, respectively.

A lemon-yellow glazed foliate dish, Yongzheng six character mark and of the period (1723-1735); 6½ in. (16.5cm) diam. Sold for GBP 12,925 Christie’s London, 6 June 2000, lot 384. © Christie's Images Ltd 2000

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics from The Dr. James D. Thornton Collection, 29 November 2017, Hong Kong