Lot 912. Property from the Dawentang Collection. A rare pair of doucai 'Figures in landscape' dishes, Yongzheng six-character marks in three lines in underglaze blue within double circles and of the period (1723-1735). One: 15.6 cm diam. The other: 15.4 cm diam. Price realised HKD 1,778,000 (Estimate HKD 1,500,000 – HKD 3,000,000) © Christie's Images Ltd 2026

Provenance: C.T. Loo, Paris

Bluett & Sons, London, purchased from the above in Paris in November 1951, no.2062

Collection of H. M. Knight, purchased from the above on 21 March 1952

Sold at Sotheby’s London, 12 May 1970, lot 93

Collection of Paul and Helen Bernat.

Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, The Paul and Helen Bernat Collection of Important Qing Imperial Porcelain and Works of Art, 15 November 1988, lot 13

Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 30 October 2000, lot 155

Literature: Chinese Ceramics from the Dawentang Collection, Vol. II, Hong Kong, 2019, pp.416-421, nos. 70-71

Exhibited: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Oosterse Schatten, 4000 Jaar Aziatische Kunst, Amsterdam, 1954, cat. no. 384

The Capital Museum, Treasures of Hong Kong: The 20th Anniversary of Hong Kong’s Handover, Beijing, 2017, cat. no. 163

Hong Kong Museum of Art, Honouring Tradition and Heritage: Min Chiu Society at Sixty, Hong Kong, 18 December 2020 – 28 April 2021, cat. no. 117.

Note : Each dish is exquisitely painted in vibrant tones, one depicts a hermit on a mule followed by his attendant crossing a bridge beside a riverside landscape, the other with a fisherman fishing from a rocky shore. The exterior is decorated with long arched stalks of bamboo and lingzhi growing from rockwork.

While a number of Yongzheng doucai dishes with a central medallion scene survive, exceedingly few examples are decorated with figures in landscape. Compare to a Yongzheng doucai ‘immortals’ dish from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, no.219. Compare also to a Yongzheng dish painted with an immortal and his attendant, the exterior further decorated with arched bamboos and lingzhi, housed in the Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing.

Christie's. Pearls of The Orient - Treasures from Hong Kong Private Collectors, Hong Kong, 40 April 2026