Lot 286. A rare 'famille-rose' tazza, Qianlong seal mark and period (1736-1795); diameter 6 3/4 in., 17.1 cm height 3 3/8 in., 8.6 cm. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 USD. Lot sold 110,500 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

the wide dish decorated to the interior with a central iron-red shou medallion encircled by a dense composite floral scroll comprising four large blooms interspersed with smaller flowers and curling leafy stems, picked out in two shades of green with yellow, white and pink enamels, the cavetto left plain save for the iron-red wufu ('five bats') descending upon the flowers, the underside decorated with radiating iron-red ruyi-head lappets, all supported on a splayed foot with a border of pendent green and yellow plantain leaves suspending beaded tassels, the six-character seal mark in underglaze-blue to the interior of the foot.

Provenance: The Edward T. Chow Collection.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 25th November 1980, lot 172.

Note: A similar tazza in the Qing Court Collection, Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Xu Huping, The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 294. Another was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 20 March 1990, lot 660.