Lot 210. A pair of 'doucai' saucer dishes, Yongzheng marks and period (1723-1735); diameter 5 7/8 in., 14.9 cm. Estimate 35,000 — 45,000 USD. Sold 43,750 USD. photo courtesy Sotheby's

each with rounded flared sides springing from a low tapered footring, the interior painted with a central roundel enclosing a knotty peach tree bearing blossoms and fruit growing amid rocks and bamboo, encircled around the cavetto with further peach boughs interspersed with paired butterflies, the underside with clusters of bamboo and lingzhi (2).

Note: Two closely related dishes were sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 30th October 2002, lot 321, and 24th May 1978, lot 244; another was sold in our London rooms, 6th April 1976, lot 158. For the Kangxi prototype see a pair, from the collection of Helen and Peter Lin, included in the exhibition Joined Colors: Decoration and Meaning in Chinese Porcelain, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., 1993, cat. no. 63.