Lot 3699. A fine clair-de-lune-glazed saucer dish, Mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 13.2 cm. Lot Sold 406,400 HKD (Estimate 300,000 - 400,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2023

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 17th November 1975, lot 130 (one of a pair).
Eskenazi Ltd, London, 25th November 1975, no. 6776 (one of a pair).
Sotheby's London, 7th November 2012, lot 272 (one of a pair).
Marchant, London.
Christie's New York, 14th September 2017, lot 743.

Exhibited: Imperial Chinese Porcelain, Ceramics and Works of Art, Marchant, London, 2013, cat. no. 27 (one of a pair).

Note: Exuding understated elegance characteristic of the Yongzheng period, the present dish is covered in a luminous clair-de-lune glaze inspired by the celebrated Ru wares of the Song dynasty. This high-fired glaze, with a cobalt content of about 1%, was first produced by the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen during the Kangxi Emperor’s reign. Known in the West by the nineteenth-century French connoisseurs’ term clair-de-lune (‘moon light’), and in China as tianlan (‘sky blue’), it was one of the most successful monochrome glazes created in Jingdezhen during the Kangxi reign and reserved exclusively for imperial porcelains, remaining popular throughout the Qing dynasty.

It is rare to find a pair of Yongzheng reign-marked claire-de-lune dishes. Compare a pair of similar dishes from the Zhuyuetang Collection, included in the exhibition Shimmering Colours. Monochromes of the Yuan to Qing Periods: The Zhuyuetang Collection, Art Museum, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2005, cat. no. 72; and another pair from the Sir Percival David Collection and now in the British Museum, London, is included in Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1989, no. B560-1. The pair to this dish was sold in these rooms, 29th April 2022, lot 3501.