Lot 4. A blue and white 'Romance of the Western Chamber' dish, Early Kangxi period (1662-1722); 15.8cm diam. Sold for €9,600.  Photo Bonhams.

With gently rounded and flared sides, finely painted with a scene from Xixiangji when Zhang Sheng and Yingying have their first encounter in a Buddhist temple, focusing on a central figure of Buddha seated on an elevated platform, surrounded by monks engaged in various activities, with a two-line inscription, the base with an apocryphal Jiajing mark in underglaze blue.

Provenance: Collection of Joachim Schlotterbeck (1926-2007), Würzburg, acquired from him in 1992.

Published and Exhibited: Daniel Suebsman and Daniela Antonin, Kangxi - Porcelain Treasures of the Kangxi Period, Düsseldorf, 2015, p.106, no.57
The Dancing Dragon! Kangxi / China Contemporary, Hetjens Museum, Düsseldorf, 19 July 2015 - 17 January 2016, no.57

Note:  similar dish, painted with a scene from the Xixiangji and dated in accordance with 1666, is illustrated in Stephen Little, Chinese Ceramics of the Transitional period: 1620-1683, New York, 1983, fig.27. Another dish dated to the same year from the Percival David Collection, is published and discussed by Richard L. Kilburn, Transitional Wares and Their Forerunners, Hong Kong, 1981, fig.26, where two related dishes are illustrated, ibid., no. 107 with a Jiajing mark, and no.108 with a Kangxi mark.

Bonhams - Cornette de Saint Cyr. CHINESE ART FROM A GERMAN FAMILY COLLECTION, Paris, 26 October 2023