A famille verte green-glaze-backed dish, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (

26 août 2017

A famille verte green-glaze-backed dish, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (

Lot 741. A famille verte green-glaze-backed dish, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1662-1722), 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 10,000 - USD 15,000. Price realised USD 30,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The dish is finely decorated on the interior with three military figures, each holding a spear or halberd, and the reverse is covered with a translucent green glaze.

Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Blake Collection.
Sotheby's London, Fine "Famille Rose" Porcelain in Chinese Taste: The Property of E. C. Blake, Esq., 8 July 1958, lot 99 (part lot).
John Sparks Ltd., London.
Sir Alfred Akroyd Collection.
Sotheby's London, An Important Collection of Chinese Porcelain: The Property of the late Sir Alfred Akroyd, 17 May 1966, lot 225 (part lot).
Spink & Son Ltd., London.
F. G. &. E. H. Morrill Collection, no. 67 (label).
Bluett & Son, London, 1986.

Literature: Transactions of The Oriental Ceramic Society, 1951-52, vol. 26, p. 64, no. 23.

Exhibited: London, The Oriental Ceramic Society, Exhibition of Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty 1644-1912, 23 May - 21 July, 1951, no. 23.

Note: The three figures in the present dish can be identified by the signs hanging from their belts as characters from the famous novel ‘The Water Margin’: Sun Chao stands in the center, flanked by Ruan Xiaowu and Lei Heng. The scene was likely inspired by illustrations of ‘The Water Margin’ made by the artist Chen Hongshou, who created the illustrations for an edition of the book which was published in 1657, as well as a set of album leaves showing a different character on each page. A dish in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, decorated sparsely with just three figures stripped of any landscape setting, appears to be particularly related to the Chen Hongshou album leaves: see R. Kerr, Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1986, p. 102-103, no. 81.

Porcelain painted in enamel colours dish, ca. 1700, underglaze blue mark Wenxin Zhai (Studio to examine one's mind) within a double circle. Height: 2.6 cm, Diameter: 20.6 cm. Salting bequest, C.1196-1910 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2017.

A similar Kangxi-marked famille verte dish decorated with three figures and covered on the exterior with a green glaze in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, p. 232, no. 226, where the author notes (p. 236) that “the green glaze on the reverse of this dish is somewhat unusual”. Two further examples also with green glaze on the reverse were bequeathed by the Rev. A. V. Valentine-Richards to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, museum nos. C.38-1933 and C.39-1933, and another related dish is illustrated by Wang Qingzheng, Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, p. 305, no. 132.

Dish, Qing dynasty (1644–1911), Kangxi mark and period (1662–1722). Porcelain painted in overglaze famille verte enamels.Diam. 6 7/8 in. (17.5 cm). Bequest of Edmund C. Converse, 1921, 21.175.39 © 2000–2017 The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Green-backed famille verte saucer dish, Qing Dynasty (1644-1912); Kangxi Period (1662-1722), height: 2.7 cm, diameter: 17 cm. The Rev. A.V. Valentine-Richards Bequest, C.38-1933 © 2000-2016, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, UK.

Turquoise-backed famille verte saucer dish, Qing Dynasty (1644-1912); Kangxi Period (1662-1722), height: 2.6 cm, diameter: 17,3 cm. The Rev. A.V. Valentine-Richards Bequest, 1933, C.39-1933 © 2000-2016, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, UK.

Christie's. Marchant: Nine Decades in Chinese Art, 14 September 2017, New York