Lot 2242. A rare large yellow-ground blue and white 'Peach' dish, Qianlong six-character seal mark and of the period (1736-1795); 10 5/8 in. (27 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 1,600,000 - HKD 2,500,000. Price realised HKD 1,940,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2012 

Finely painted in early Ming style with a central medallion of nine peaches suspended from gnarled leafy branches within a border of double-circles, repeated below the mouth rim, the exterior with a dense interwoven convovulous scroll between double lines, all on a bright lemon-yellow ground, Japanese wood box.

Note: Other dishes of this size and design are published, such as the dish in the National Palace Museum Collection, Taipei, illustrated in Blue and White Ware of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Book II, Hong Kong, 1968, pl. 29; and another in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, the World's Great Collections, Kodansha Series, vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, no. 247. Compare also to a pair of these dishes from the T. Y. Chao Collection, illustrated in Ch'ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Catalogue, 1973, no. 45, later sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 March 1987, lot 316. Two other pairs, the first from the collection of Sir Thomas Fermor-Hesketh Collection, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 May 2006, lot 1245; and the second pair from the Harry Nail and John Yeon Collections, was sold at Christie's New York, 22 March 2007, lot 331. A single dish from the Thomas English Cody Collection was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 3921.