TONGZHI FOUR-CHARACTER MARK IN IRON-RED AND OF THE PERIOD (1862-1874)

For a discussion of this pattern, part of a significant group of porcelains produced for the celebration of the wedding of Cixi's son Zaichun, the Tongzhi Emperor, see R. Longsdorf, 'The Tongzhi Imperial Wedding Porcelain', Orientations, October, 1996, pp. 69-78, where vessels from this pattern are illustrated, figs. 14, 33 and 34. Compare, also, the famille rose-decorated yellow-ground 'magpie' dish illustrated by van Oort in Chinese Porcelain of the 19th and 20th Centuries, The Netherlands, 1977, p. 70, pl. 55. See, also, another 'magpie' dish of this pattern and size, with a four-character Tongzhi mark in iron red, sold in these rooms, 16-17 September 2010, lot 1472.