Lot 2909. A fine pair of blue and white saucer dishes, Yongzheng six-character marks within double circles and of the period (1723-1735); 3 ¼ in. (8.3 cm.) diam. Estimate: HK$600,000.00 - HK$800,000.00 (USD 76,905 - USD 102,540). Price realised HKD 750,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2018

Each saucer is delicately decorated on the exterior with blossoming branches of peonies, prunus and camellia, box.

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 18 May 1988, lot 173
Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 29 October 1991, lot 130.

Note: The current pair of dishes is closely modelled after Chenghua examples. Compare to two Chenhua doucai dishes of the same shape and almost identical size in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, painted with fruiting sprays on the exterior and grapes on the interior, illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ch’eng-Hua Porcelain Ware, Taipei, 2003, nos. 182, 183. The painting on the current pair of dishes is more realistic than that seen on the Chenghua examples, reflecting the delicacy and subtlety characteristic of Yongzheng porcelain with the use of soft brush strokes and washed shades of cobalt-blue. 

Very few other Yongzheng-marked dishes of this size and design are known, only one other pair appears to be known, which was sold at Beijing Hanhai, 10 December 2001, and a pair was offered at Beijing Hanhai, 3 July 2000. Larger Yongzheng-marked examples of this design measuring approx. 20 cm. in diameter are more common, such as the example sold at China Guardian, 21 November 2009, lot 1835, and another example sold at Poly Hong Kong, 25 November 2012, lot 870.