Lot 197. A lac-burgauté 'scholars' dish, Qianli two-character mark, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 12cm (4 7/8in) diam. Estimate £ 3,000-5,000. Sold for £ 4,750 (€ 5,424). Photo Bonhams.

Covered with dark lacquer and inlaid with mother-of-pearl, depicting a scene of four scholars, gathering around a square table accompanied by a boy attendant, all within a fenced garden beside rockwork and canopied by a gnarled pine tree, the rim bordered by a band of triangular interlocking panels enclosing a floral motif.

Provenance: the collection of Arthur Rudolph Harrington Mann, no.50/19 (1907-1988), acquired from Mount Street, London, in the 1950s, and thence by descent.

Note: Compare a related dish also with a Jiang Qianli zhi seal mark from the Baoyizhai Collection, illustrated in 2000 Years of Chinese Lacquer, Hong Kong, 2003, no.95 and sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 April 2014, lot 48.

A mother-of-pearl inlaid black lacquer dish, by Jiang Qianli, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period (1662-1722); diameter 12.5 cm., 4 7/8 in. Estimate 150,000 — 200,000 HKD. Lot sold 325,000 HKD at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 April 2014, lot 48. Photo Sotheby's.

Cf. my post: A mother-of-pearl inlaid black lacquer dish, by Jiang Qianli, Qing Dynasty, Kangxi Period (1662-1722)

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART, London, 12 November 2015