Lot 2933. A fine and rare doucai 'Narcissus' dish, Yongzheng six-character mark within double-circles and of the period (1723-1735). Estimate HKD 800,000 - HKD 1,200,000 (USD 110,000 - USD 150,000). Price Realised HKD 1,820,000(USD 234,736). © Christie's Images Ltd 2011.

Exquisitely pencilled and enamelled to the interior with narcissus among other auspicious plants and rocks, the exterior similarly decorated with two further groups of narcissus, plants and rocks - 8 1/8 in. (20.6 cm.) diam., box .  

Exhibited: London, Recent Acquisitions, 2004, S. Marchant & Son, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 33    

Notes: This 'narcissus' dish is an exquisite example of doucai from the Yongzheng reign. The porcelains of this period are famous for the refinement of their white porcelain, their fine potting, and the delicacy and elegance of their decoration. This dish is exceptionally fine, even amongst these vessels. The technique of doucai decoration required that the design was painted with underglaze blue outlines, which were later filled using overglaze coloured enamels. This type of decoration flourished in the Chenghua reign (1465-1487), but, due to the difficulties associated with its production, was largely replaced by other, less taxing, techniques in later periods. It returned to imperial favour in the Yongzheng reign, and a new style was developed, which was much more delicate, and had a much more varied, but restrained, use of colour than its predecessors.

The decoration on this dish is not only beautiful, it was also chosen to convey an auspicious meaning suitable for a birthday. Both the interior and the exterior are decorated with narcissus, nandina, lingzhi fungus, with ornamental rocks. Narcissus is associated in China with good fortune and prosperity, and is often displayed at the New Year. However its Chinese name translates as 'water immortal flower', and in this design combines with the lingzhi (the fungus of immortality) to suggest the 'fungus immortal'. The name of the nandina plant and the phrase for rocks in Chinese combine with the narcissus and lingzhi, to provide a rebus for either 'May the immortals congratulate you on your birthday' or 'May the immortals bestow long life upon you'. 

It is highly probable that the design was inspired from a garden view outside the emperor's studio. One of the album paintings Shuzhai xiejing, 'Copying Sutras in the Studio', in the series Yongzheng xingle tu, 'Emperor Yongzheng at Play', in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, depicts the emperor in a Han-style costume seating by his desk while overlooking plants of narcissus and nandina growing amidst rocks (see fig. 1). The scene is very similar to the decoration on the present lot. It must have been a favourite scene of the emperor's for him to have commissioned a court painter to represent it on paper which the imperial kiln potters would then have rendered onto porcelain. 

Yongzheng xingle tu, 'Emperor Yongzheng at Play', from Shuzhai xiejing, 'Copying Sutras in the Studio', Palace Museum, Beijing

Similar examples were sold at Christie's New York, 6 May 2006, lot 1240; and Sotheby's Hong Kong, 2 May 2005, lot 503.