Note: This exquisitely enamelled and unique dish belongs to a small group of wares that were made by craftsmen working in the Enamelling Workshop that was part of the Zaobanchu (Imperial Palace Workshop) located in the Forbidden City. A sense of naturalism is captured in this charming scene through extensively detailed objects and this dish is characteristic of the high standard of artistic and technical expertise of the Imperial craftsmen working during the Qianlong period.

The delightful placement of the reign mark within the double gourd is rare and derives from porcelain of the Yongzheng period. Although no other dish of this design appears to have been recorded, a lobed box decorated with a scene of a pheasant and quail standing amongst flowering branches and similarly enamelled with a four-character reign mark of Qianlong within a double gourd, and of the period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo Jin Yin boli falang qi quanji, Shijiazhuang, 2002, pl. 152. Further examples of Qianlong marks within various objects include a pair of floral decorated bowls with reign marks within a flowering and fruiting peach sprays, sold in our New York rooms, 1st June 1993, lot 99; another pair of bowls with the mark in a flower citron also sold in our New York rooms, 5th November 1977, lot 20; and a miniature tiered box with a peach containing the mark sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29-30th October 2001, lot 642. For a ruby-back famille-rose porcelain cup with the Yongzheng reign mark enclosed within a double peach, see one published in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pl. 218, where he notes that the 'unusual style of mark is appropriate to a special imperial gift; it has been suggested, for a royal birthday' (p. 100).

The technique of enamelling on metal was introduced to Guangzhou by Jesuit missionaries who entered the port and had brought examples of Limoges ware from Europe. This art form initially developed and flourished in Guangzhou to the extent that their craftsmen were recruited to the Zaobanchu. By the Qianlong reign, this technique reached its peak and reflected the extravagant taste of the emperor.