Lot 3001. A rare blue and white 'Hoopoe and Peach' dish, Jiajing six-character mark within a double circle and of the period (1522-1566); 8 3/4 in. (22.5 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 400,000 - HKD 600,000. Price realised HKD 437,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The dish is delicately decorated in cobalt blue with a ‘flower-and-bird’ composition with a peach tree rising from one edge of the central panel with its branches extended upon which perch two hoopoe birds, one swinging downwards and the other upright. The exterior is decorated with two sinuous five-clawed dragons emitting lotus scrolls from their opened mouths. The details on each side are finely depicted in various shades of cobalt blue; Japanese paulownia wood box.

Provenance: Hirano Kotoken, Tokyo.
A Japanese private collection, acquired in 1979

Literature: Hirano Kotoken, Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics, Tamaya Department Store, Kyushu, October 1979, Catalogue, cover and no. 57

Exhibited: Hirano Kotoken, Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics, Tamaya
Department Store, Kyushu, October 1979, cover illustration and no. 57 (fig. 1).

 fig. 1 Hirano Kotoken, Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics, Tamaya Department Store, Kyushu, October 1979.

Note: The hoopoe, daisheng, is recognised by its crown of feathers, and it is named in English for its distinctive call. Peaches are a well-known symbol for long life, and hence it can be posited that this dish may have been produced to commemorate a birthday.

The source of the imagery and composition of the current lot was inspired by the ‘bird and flower’ chargers popular in the Yongle period, which in turn was inspired by the court paintings of the 10th century. The Yongle dishes feature either a single or a pair of birds perched on a fruiting branch which often extends beyond the central panel. For example, a charger with a pair of crested birds perched on a flowering plant is illustrated in The Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Masterpiece of Ming and Qing Ceramics, Osaka, 2011, p. 19, pl. 15, and a further charger with two birds on a tea plant is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. II, no. 595.