Lot 2809. A fine and superbly painted pair of doucai ‘peony’ dishes, Yongzheng six-character marks in underglaze blue within double circles and of the period (1723-1735); 8 ¼ in. (21 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 6,000,000 - HKD 8,000,000. Price realised HKD 9,220,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Each is decorated with two branches of tree-peony bearing large yellow and reddish-orange blooms springing from beside a pierced rock, beneath two butterflies in flight. The exterior is decorated with large branches of chrysanthemums and hibiscus, and small sprays of dianthus and aster clustered around two groups of rocks, with two butterflies above, all within double-line borders. 

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

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

Note: While similar examples have been recorded, it is extremely rare to find dishes in the current pattern with superb quality of enamelling and in a pair. It appears that only one other pair of dishes in this pattern has been recorded, which was sold at China Guardian, 4 November 2005, lot 393. For other single dishes bearing this design, see one included in Chogoku kotoji ten, Exhibition of Old Chinese Porcelain, Hirano Kotoken, Osaka, 1990, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 65; one from the Woodthorpe Collection, included in the O. C. S. Exhibition of Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty, London, 1951, is illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 99, and sold at Sotheby’s London, 6 April 1954, lot 105; one from the Aykroyd collection, sold at Sotheby’s London, 17 May 1966, lot 229; and two sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 26 October 1993, lot 154, and 11 April 2008, lot 2970, respectively.

A doucai 'peony and rock' dish, mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 21cm., 8 1/4 in. Sold for 847,500 HKD at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 11 April 2008, lot 2970. Photo: Sotheby's

Compare also with several examples executed entirely in underglaze blue such as the pair included in the exhibition catalogue of Chingtechen Porcelain for the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties from the Collection of the T.Y. Chao Family Foundation, 1978, Hong Kong, 1978, no. 86; and sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2244 and to the single dish illustrated by S. Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1971, pl. LXI, figs. 1 and 2.

A fine and rare pair of blue and white 'peony' dishes, Yongzheng six-character marks within double-circles and of the period (1723-1735); 8 1/4 in. (20.9 cm.) diam. Sold for HKD 1,820,000 at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2244 © Christie's Images Ltd 2012