Lot 3601. A rare reverse-decorated powder-blue 'Gardenia' dish, Mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 33.2 cm, 13  in. Estimate 1,500,000 — 2,000,000 HKD (191,085 - 254,780 USD). Lot Sold 3,240,000 HKD (413,294 USD). Photo: Sotheby's.

well potted with shallow rounded sides resting on a short foot, the interior centred with a medallion enclosing a gnarled leafy gardenia spray, surrounded by four similar sprays around the cavetto and a corresponding continuous scroll on the exterior, all against a finely speckled cobalt-blue ground below double-line borders encircling the inner and outer rims, the floral and foliate details of the design finely rendered in white slip, the white base inscribed with a six-character reign mark within a double circle.

Provenance: Sotheby’s London, 11th June 1991, lot 180.

Note: With its white reserve decoration on a cobalt-blue ground, this pattern would seem to be ultimately based on prototypes of the Xuande period with a single flower spray in the centre, such as a dish in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum's exhibition Mingdai Xuande guanyao jinghua tezhan tulu/Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, pl. 193. A somewhat closer design was developed in the Wanli reign, with four flowers in the centre, for example, on a dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, Shanghai, 2000, vol. 2, pl. 195. 

The early Ming design was also copied more closely in the Yongzheng period, as can be seen on a dish in the Shanghai Museum illustrated in Lu Minghua, Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 5-33. Whereas both the Xuande prototype and the Shanghai Museum Yongzheng version are covered with an even, dark cobalt-blue coloured glaze, the Wanli example has the ground painted in underglaze cobalt blue, and on the present dish the pigment was blown onto the vessel through a tube covered with gauze, which produced this finely speckled powder-blue effect. 

A similar dish in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is illustrated in Suzanne G. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 248. The Meiyintang collection contains also a blue and white dish, together with a bowl, decorated in the same technique, and a similar dish with the design coloured in yellow, see Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, nos 843, 842 and 844; the Meiyintang dish, formerly in the collections of Edward G. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy Torrington, was acquired at Christie's New York, 2nd December 1989, lot 370, and sold in these rooms, 7th April 2011, lot 75. See also one from the collection of Alexander Robertson, sold recently in these rooms, 3rd April 2018, lot 3617.

Dish, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Yongzheng mark and period (1723–35). Porcelain with reserve decoration and slight relief on "powder blue" ground. Diam. 13 in. (33 cm). Purchase by subscription, 1879; 79.2.129 © 2000–2018 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Formerly in the collections of Edward G. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy Torrington. The Meiyintang reverse-decorated powder-blue dish, mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 33.5 cm., 13 1/4 in. Sold for 3,380,000 HKD at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7th April 2011, lot 75. Photo: Sotheby's

Cf. my post A reverse-decorated powder-blue dish, mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735)

From the collection of Alexander Robertson. A rare reverse-decorated powder-blue 'Gardenia' dish, Mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 33.3 cm, 13 1/8  in. Sold for 4,320,000 HKD (550,411 USD) at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 3rd April 2018, lot 3617. ©  Sotheby's 2018

Cf. my post: A rare reverse-decorated powder-blue 'Gardenia' dish, Mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735)

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 03 oct. 2018, 03:00 PM