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Lot Essay
The present dish is replete with wishes for long-life and prosperity, including the God of Longevity, a deer, peaches, lingzhi fungus and bats. According to R. E. Scott in For the Imperial Court: Qing Porcelain from the Percival David Foundation, London, 1997, p. 48, such dishes were unlikely actually to have been used during the birthday celebrations, but were probably presented to guests as a gift.
Such dishes were made in sets, of which one type features incised characters surrounded by a similar border of iron-red bats: see, for example, a Kangxi-marked dish illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Miscellaneous Enamelled Porcelains, Plain Tricoloured Porcelains, Shenzhen, 2009, p. 21, no. 18. Another type features a related composition of Shoulao decorated in the famille verte palette, such as the Kangxi-marked dish sold at Christie's New York, 16-17 September 2010, lot 1379. The present dish is particularly unusual in its exclusive use of shades of iron-red to depict Shoulao.
Such dishes were made in sets, of which one type features incised characters surrounded by a similar border of iron-red bats: see, for example, a Kangxi-marked dish illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Miscellaneous Enamelled Porcelains, Plain Tricoloured Porcelains, Shenzhen, 2009, p. 21, no. 18. Another type features a related composition of Shoulao decorated in the famille verte palette, such as the Kangxi-marked dish sold at Christie's New York, 16-17 September 2010, lot 1379. The present dish is particularly unusual in its exclusive use of shades of iron-red to depict Shoulao.