YONGZHENG PERIOD, CIRCA 1730

The scene on this dish depicts the Daoist Immortal, Magu, on her way to celebrate the birthday of the Queen Mother of the West, Xi Wang Mu, who rules over the garden of the peaches of longevity. It contains many symbols of long-life and immortality, especially the lingzhi fungus, the deer, and the peaches, while the blossoming prunus tree represents youth and new life. This dish can be dated with some accuracy since no new pieces were added to the collection of Augustus the Strong after his death in 1733, and the inventory books at Dresden reveal that dishes of this kind were acquired after 1727; see C.J.A. Jörg, Oriental Porcelain, A Choice from the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum Collection, Rotterdam, 1995, p. 61, and fig. 25 for one of a pair of slightly larger, very similar dishes in the museum collection. See also Eva Ströber, La maladie de porcelaine ..., East Asian Porcelain from the Collection of Augustus the Strong, Leibzig, 2001, no. 32 for a very similar large dish in the Dresden collection. A dish of the same size and design as the present lot was sold at Christie's South Kensington, 11 November 2005, lot 675.