Lot 3430. A fine doucai 'birthday' dish, Yongzheng six-character mark within double circles and of the period (1723-1735); 6 1/8 in. (15.5 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 300,000 - HKD 500,000. Price Realized HKD 687,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2013

The dish has shallow rounded sides, and is finely painted in the interior with five iron-red bats, Wufu) flying around a fruiting peach tree growing from the side of a cliff that overhangs a blue rock rising from breaking green waves. The exterior is painted with pairs of bats alternating with four fruiting branches, each incorporating a Shou medallion, all within double blue line borders, box.

Provenance: Sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 5-6 November 1997, lot 980.

Note: A similar Yongzheng dish, of the same size, is illustrated by R. Kerr, Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 1986, pl. 86. One in the Shanghai Museum of Art is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Selected Ceramics from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Hu, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 48; and another is illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, Ch'ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Hong Kong, 1973, no. 87. See, also, the dish sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 May 2006, lot 1433, and again at Christie's New York, 15 September 2011, lot 1548. Another was sold at Christie's New York, 21-22 March 2013, lot 1484.

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