A fine and rare large doucai dish, Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period

25 août 2018

A fine and rare large doucai dish, Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period

Lot 349. A fine and rare large doucai dish, Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1723-1735); 10 11/16 in. (27.2 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 30,000 - USD 50,000. Price realised USD 45,600. © Christie's Images Ltd 2007

The interior decorated with a central stylized iron-red peony blossom surrounded by four similar blossoms enclosed within heart-shaped reserves formed by the curving leafy tendrils, the pattern repeated as a frieze on the exterior below a narrow band of C-scrolls, all within double line borders.

Provenance: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 1930s-1940s.

Literature: W. G. Gulland, Chinese Porcelain, vol. II, London, 1918, p. 381, no. 652, where it was illustrated as one of a pair with no. 653.

Note: The pair to the present dish was given by Gulland to the Victoria and Albert Museum and is illustrated by J. Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, no. 210.

A very similar Yongzheng-marked doucai dish of this unusual design from the Chang Foundation Collection is illustrated by J. Spencer in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, p. 308, no. 135; another of similar size is illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, p. 355, no. 1067; and one is illustrated in Chinese Arts of the Ming and Ch'ing Periods, Tokyo National Museum, 1963, no. 413. A pair of smaller (11.4 cm.) Yongzheng- marked dishes from the Wang Xing Lou Collection is illustrated in Imperial Perfection, The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors: Kangxi - Yongzheng - Qianlong, Hong Kong, 2004, pp. 92-3, no. 30.

Another pair of smaller (15.5 cm.) Yongzheng-marked dishes from the collection of Stephen Junkunc III was sold in these rooms, 21 September 1995, lot 258.