YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARKS IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN DOUBLE CIRCLES AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

While similar examples have been recorded, it is extremely rare to find dishes in the current pattern with superb quality of enamelling and in a pair. It appears that only one other pair of dishes in this pattern has been recorded, which was sold at China Guardian, 4 November 2005, lot 393. For other single dishes bearing this design, see one included in Chogoku kotoji ten, Exhibition of Old Chinese Porcelain, Hirano Kotoken, Osaka, 1990, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 65; one from the Woodthorpe Collection, included in the O. C. S. Exhibition of Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty, London, 1951, is illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 99, and sold at Sotheby’s London, 6 April 1954, lot 105; one from the Aykroyd collection, sold at Sotheby’s London, 17 May 1966, lot 229; and two sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 26 October 1993, lot 154, and 11 April 2008, lot 2970, respectively.

Compare also with several examples executed entirely in underglaze blue such as the pair included in the exhibition catalogue of Chingtechen Porcelain for the Ming and Ch’ing Dynasties from the Collection of the T.Y. Chao Family Foundation, 1978, Hong Kong, 1978, no. 86; and sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2244 and to the single dish illustrated by S. Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1971, pl. LXI, figs. 1 and 2.

The design of the present dish is striking in its combination of the stylised rockwork, skilfully executed in washes of underglaze-blue in the manner of monochrome ink painting, with the bright doucai palette of glossy overglaze enamels. The spaciousness of the composition sets the pure white of the porcelain in brilliant contrast with the painted design. The present example, both in the high quality of its potting and painted decoration, exemplifies the restrained and sophisticated aesthetic of the Yongzheng emperor’s court.