Lot 123. A rare famille-verte 'Peach' dish, mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722); 28.7 cm, 11 1/4  in. Estimate 200,000 — 300,000 HKD (25,480 - 38,220 USD). Lot Sold 325,000 HKD (41,457 USD). Photo: Sotheby's. 

the shallow rounded sides resting on a tapered foot, brightly enamelled on the interior with a large peach of variegated green, mottled olive and rusty brown tones, inscribed with two seal characters reading wanshou(longevity) in gilt, the fruit borne on a knotted bough issuing lanceolate leaves of various shades of green, similarly painted on the exterior with three detached sprays of peach gilt with shou characters, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark in underglaze blue within a double circle.

Note: Dishes of this design are rare, although one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Imperial Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 70, pl. 53; another from the Sir Percival David collection, and now in the British Museum, London, is published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 218; and a third example was sold in our London rooms, 5th December 1995, lot 306.

Serving dish with peaches, Qing dynasty, Kangxi mark and period, about AD 1713. Porcelain with underglaze cobalt-blue mark, translucent overglaze colours and gilding, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province; 28,6 cm diam. Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF 818 © Trustees of the British Museum