Lot 315. A pair of yellow-ground 'One Hundred Bat' dishes, Tongzhi marks and period (1865-1875. Diameter 8 5/8  in., 21.8 cm. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 USD. Lot sold 18,750 USD. Photo: Sotheby's 2015

each with rounded sides rising from a gently flaring foot, painted on the interior with iron-red bats in flight against a deep yellow ground, the underside enameled with three detached floral sprays in famille-rose on a white ground, four character marks in iron red (2). 

Provenance: Sotheby's London, 12th May 2010, lot 195.

Notes: A dish of almost exactly the same size and decoration is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Guan yang ciqi, Beijing, 2007, p. 113. 

According to Ronald W. Longsdorf, 'The Imperial Tongzhi Porcelain', Orientations, October 1996, p. 72, the design of the present bowl is one of the thirteen designs produced for the wedding celebration of the Empress Dowager's Son, the Tongzhi Emperor Zaichun. The wedding was of unique historical significance as it was the first Imperial wedding since that of the Kangxi emperor (r. 1662-1722), as all the succeeding emperors were already married by the time they ascended the throne. The Provincial Governor of Jiangxi Province, was appointed to supervise the production of these porcelains to be used during the wedding. 

The motif of bats convey the wish for a long and happy life to the newly married couple.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 15 sept. 2015