Lot 3148. A pair of famille verte bracket-lobed chargers, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 14 ¾ in. (37.5 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 5,000 - USD 7,000. Price Realized USD 21,250. © Christie's Image Ltd 2015

Each dish is decorated on the interior with a different scene from an historical play or novel, one depicting a scholar departing from his friend while an attendant carries his luggage and a rider awaits him on a cart beside an ox, the other depicting two musicians preparing to perform music for an official seated in an open pavilion. The barbed, everted rim of each dish is decorated with crane medallions against an iron-red florette-diaper ground. The exterior is decorated with three flower sprays in iron-red and green glaze, and the base has a leaf mark in underglaze blue.

Provenance: Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York.

Exhibited: The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1936.

Note: The present chargers belong to a group of Kangxi famille verte dishes depicting various narrative scenes from popular novels or dramas, and with 'brocade' decoration on the rims. Two such examples are illustrated by Regina Krahl and Clarissa von Spee in Chinese Ceramics from the Gulexuan Collection, Germany, 2003, nos. 101 and 102. Another was included in the exhibition Weaving China's Past: The Amy S. Clague Collection of Chinese Textiles, Phoenix Art Museum, 2000, no. 15; and one is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, from the Salting Bequest (accession no. C.1202-1910).

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 15 - 16 March 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza