Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 November 2012
A fine Ming-style blue and white dish, Yongzheng six-character mark within double-circles and of the period (1723-1735)
Lot 2241. A fine Ming-style blue and white dish, Yongzheng six-character mark within double-circles and of the period (1723-1735); 10¾ in. (27.2 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 800,000 - HKD 1,500,000. Price realised HKD 860,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2012
The dish is well painted on the interior with composite blossoms borne on a leafy interlacing scroll spiralling outwards from a flowerhead in the centre. The cavetto is decorated with a meandering composite floral scroll beneath a classic scroll border, the composite scroll repeated on the reverse side, between a keyfret and classic scroll band, box.
Provenance: Sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 20 May 1987, lot 440.
Note: The design for this dish is inspired by early 15th century examples, such as a dish excavated at Zhushan in 1982 and published in Xuande Imperial Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1998, pl. 92. Another example is illustrated by John A. Pope in Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Washington, DC, 1956, pl. 34, 29.98. A Xuande-marked dish of similar design was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29 October 1991, lot 30A and again at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 May 2007, lot 1353.
Related Yongzheng dishes of similar design include a dish of the same size, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 April 2004, lot 1048; and a slightly larger example sold at Christie's London, 11 May 2010, lot 209.