Chrysanthemum-shaped dishes appear in a complete series of twelve colours. The most notable set of twelve is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, p. 316, no. 145. Six are illustrated by Feng Xianming, Wenwu, 1984, p. 37, no. 10, where the author notes that a decree issued in the eleventh year of Yongzheng (corresponding to A. D. 1733) instructed Nian Xiyao, Minister of the Imperial Household, to send 'the twelve colours of chrysanthemum dishes, one of each colour, for the inspection of the permanent guardian of the treasury and chief eunuch Samuha'. The decree further mentions 'forty pieces to be fired of every type according to the samples'. As recorded by A. W. Hummel in Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, vol. I, pp. 588-590, Nian Xiyao was appointed as a minister of the Imperial Household in 1726, and between 1726-1735 he was in charge of the manufacture of porcelain as well as assuming the post of superintendant of customs at Huaian in Jiangsu province.

Several other white-glazed Yongzheng-marked chrysanthemum dishes are published, cf. a pair in the Kempe Collection, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 748; and a single dish previously from the K. W. Woollcombe Boyce Collection, sold Sotheby's Hong Kong, 24 May 1978, lot 185. A series of these dishes in five colours from the Lorant Goldschlager Collection were sold in our London Rooms, 4 June 1973, lots 209 - 214 (lot 211 being a pair of white-glazed dishes).

It is interesting to compare Yongzheng period chrysanthemum dishes with those produced during the Qianlong reign, the latter have more smoothly rounded petals, considerably less pointed than those on Yongzheng period examples. For a single Qianlong-marked white-glazed chrysanthemum dish, see the example included in the Hong Kong Museum of Art exhibition, The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Catalogue, 1984, no. 83.

(US$58,000-70,000)