Lot 3424. A fine wucai 'carp' dish, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 8 1/4 in. (20.9 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 280,000 - HKD 350,000. Price realised HKD 525,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2013

The dish is painted on the centre of the interior with two iron-red carp, one leaping from the water, the other swimming beneath, in a river pool with lotus and arrow-weed, in green, yellow, and iron-red enamels with light underglaze blue, enclosed by the cavetto similarly painted with five fish swimming amid pond weed and floating blossoms, repeated on the exterior within double blue line borders. The base is inscribed with an apocryphal Jiajing reign mark in underglaze blue within double circles.

Provenance: An English private collection.

Note: A dish of the same design decorated to the same exacting standard and inscribed with an apocryphal Jiajing reign mark is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Good Fortune, Long Life, Health, and Peace: A Special Exhibition of Porcelains with Auspicious Designs, Taipei, 1995, p. 148, no. 71; and another illustrated by Wang Qingzheng in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, p. 272, no. 178.

Kangxi-period dishes of this design are also found with Kangxi marks, such as a pair of examples sold at Christie's New York, 15 September 2009, lot 360; and more commonly with four-character zai chuan zhi le 'rejoicing in the stream' marks, see two examples in the Palace Museum, Beijing, one illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 146, no. 134.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art (Including The Su Zhu An Collection of Inkstones), Hong Kong, 27 November 2013