Lot 2601. A large 'famille-rose' ruby-ground birthday dish, Seal mark and period of Jiaqing (1796-1820); 38.9 cm., 15 3/8 in. Estimate 200,000 — 250,000 HKD. Lot Sold 764,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's 2008

the shallow rounded sides sitting on a splayed foot and rising to an everted rim pierced with a band of circular holes, decorated to the centre with a diaper patterned lantern, encircled by four smaller tasselled lanterns alternating with four lotus blooms on dense meandering stems within a border of linked pendant and beads in the cavetto, the holes on the rim outlined in gilt and strapped together with iron-red twine, between lotus and ruyi-head borders, the underside similarly decorated, with a raised blue enamel keyfret encircling the foot, all reserved on a rich ruby-red ground, the base turquoise with a central square reserved in white for the base for the six-character seal mark in iron-red.

Provenance: A Private Japanese Collection.

Note: See a similar example from the Weishaupt Collection illustrated in Gunhild Avitabile, From the Dragon's Treasure, London, 1987, pl.21; other ruby-ground birthday dishes sold in these rooms 19th November 1986, lot 268; 10th April 2006, lot 1741; and in our New York rooms, 3rd July 1992, lot 257.

Also compare a turquoise-ground birthday dish, from the Collection of Edward T. Chow, sold in these rooms, 30th October 2002, lot 258; and another, 9th October 2007, lot 1501. 

Related dishes are also known without the open-work at the rim; see a slightly smaller yellow-ground dish with this painted decoration illustrated in Liu Liang-yu, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, Taipei, 1991, vol.5, pl.27 top; and another dish of this design with a lime-green ground included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, vol.II, Tokyo, 1981, pl.102.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. 08 Oct 08. Hong Kong