A LARGE AND EXTREMELY RARE PAIR OF IRON-RED AND ENAMEL-DECORATED 'BATS' DISHES

PROPERTY FROM AN IMPORTANT PRIVATE COLLECTION

Details

A LARGE AND EXTREMELY RARE PAIR OF IRON-RED AND ENAMEL-DECORATED 'BATS' DISHES
YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARKS WITHIN DOUBLE-CIRCLES AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

Each large dish enamelled in iron-red and black enamels to the interior with nine bats in various attitudes of flight encircling a large central shou medallion, the finely potted rounded sides rising to an everted rim, detailed in shades of translucent green and sepia enamels with thirty-two bats in flight reserved on a rich iron-red ground stopping neatly at the footrim
19 7/8 in. (50.4 cm.) diam., boxes (2)

Lot Essay

Previously sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 3 May, 1994, lot 203.

Few dishes of this rare pattern and size appear to have been published. Compare with a similarly decorated dish of the same size but with only five bats to the interior in the Indianapolis Museum of Art illustrated by Mino and Robinson, Beauty and Tranquility: The Eli Lilly Collection of Chinese Art, Indianapolis, 1983, pl. 112. Two dishes of the same size and pattern, one with nine bats to the interior as with the present dishes, the other with five, were sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 April 1996, lots 778 and 779. Lot 778 which compares best to the current pair of dishes is illustrated in Christie's 20 Years in Hong Kong, Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Highlights, p. 224.

Compare also a related but much smaller Yongzheng-marked dish sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29 October 1991, lot 182.

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