YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN DOUBLE-CIRCLES AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

Chrysanthemum-shaped dishes from the Yongzheng period were made in a series of twelve colours, a complete set in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in Monochrome Porcelain,The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 282-283, no. 257. Six are illustrated by Feng Xianming, Wenwu, 1984, p. 37, no. 10, where the author notes that a decree was issued in the eleventh year of Yongzheng (corresponding to 1733) instructing 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'.

Other similar Yongzheng cafe-au-lait glazed dishes are published, one in the Capital Museum, Beijing, illustrated by Xiong Liao, Beauty of Ceramics: Gems of the Official Kilns, Taipei, 1993, pl. 153; one included in the Min Chiu Society exhibition, Monochrome Ceramics of Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1977, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 95; and one with a pale cafe-au-lait enamel in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated in the Catalogue, Section 6, no. B597.

Compare a similar brown-enamelled chrysanthemum dish, previously in the H. M. Knight and the Hall Family Collections, and also exhibited at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Iron in the Fire, 1988, The Oriental Ceramic Society, Catalogue, no. 90. This brown chrysanthemum dish was sold at Christie's New York, 21 September 2004, lot 305.