Lot 3408. A fine and rare pink-glazed 'chrysanthemum' dish, Qianlong mark and period (1736-1795). L 30cm. Sold for HKD 900,000 (Estimate HKD 300,000 - 800,000). © Poly Auction Hong Kong Limited 2022

The chrysanthemum-petal dish is a valuable variety from the imperial kilns of the Qing dynasty, which began firing during the Yongzheng period. This rouge-glazed chrysanthemum-petal dish has an open mouth and chrysanthemum-petal shaped walls with shallow curved walls and a thin, lightweight footrim. It is covered with a carmine red glaze. The petals are evenly distributed in size, and the body is fine and dense, with a thin, light-reflecting surface. The dish is of the form of a chrysanthemum in autumn, and its uniform and lustrous glaze highlights the freshness and artistic charm of this vessel. The foot inscribed in regular script, Qianlong nian zhi ('Made during the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty').

This chrysanthemum-petal dish has a slightly rounded tip and the entire footrim is covered with white glaze, rather than the typical Qianlong monochrome glaze, which leaves the mark white. Although the base of the dish is inscribed in blue and white with a six-character, double-line, regular script mark reading 'Made during the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty', the writing is square and is in the essence of the Yongzheng period. It is therefore thought to be a product of the Yongzheng-Qianlong transition period.

Provenance: 1. Old John Sparks Ltd. collection, London
2. Former collection of The Cartwright Collection, Europe
3. Sotheby's, London, 9 November 2011, no. 65.

Note: According to the Qing Archives. According to the Yongzheng Records (1733), this type of ware was recorded as follows: 'On the 27th day of the 12th month of the 11th year of the Yongzheng reign, Zheng Tianzhi, a member of Nian Xiyao's family, sent a variety of chrysanthemum-style porcelain plates of twelve colours (one of each colour) for presentation. It was decreed that forty of each colour should be made in accordance with this order by the Jiangxi Porcelain Furnishing Office. A set of twelve chrysanthemum-petal dishes from the old Qing collection in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, made at the imperial kiln in Jingdezhen at the behest of Yongzheng himself.

The carmine red glaze was created at the end of the Kangxi period and was produced in large quantities after the Yongzheng period, when it was very popular. The carmine red glaze was imported from abroad and is a low-temperature red glaze with traces of gold as the colouring agent, so named because of its carmine colour, also known as 'Yangjin red'.

In the National Palace Museum, there is a set of twelve Yongzheng chrysanthemum-petal dishes in both public and private collections (see The Palace Museum Collection of Cultural Treasures - Pigment Glazes, p. 54, plate 48), one of which is in a carmine red glaze. One of the few Qianlong-marked chrysanthemum-petal dishes in existence can be seen in Sotheby's Hong Kong, 2 May 2000, no. 367. Volume 2, p. 245, fig. 916, features a chrysanthemum-petal dish with a rouge-red glaze inscribed in the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty. Other chrysanthemum plates with the same Qianlong mark include a turquoise green-glazed plate in the Iemitsu Museum of Fine Arts (in The Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics, Iemitsu Museum of Fine Arts, 1994, p. 60) and a coral-red-glazed chrysanthemum plate and a pale green-glazed chrysanthemum plate in the Bauer Collection, Switzerland (in Bauer's Chinese Porcelain Collection, 1972, fig. 499). In addition, a chrysanthemum-petal dish in a carmine red glaze, also of Qianlong mark, was exhibited at the Hong Kong Museum of Art in the 1980s in the Ming and Qing Dynasties One-Colour Glaze Porcelain Exhibition, 2 August-4 October 1977, p. 37, fig. 19, which is also available for consultation.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).

Poly Auction Hong Kong Limited. Palatial Splendour: Imperial Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 2 Dec 2021