YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

Details

A FINE AND RARE IRON-RED DECORATED CAFÉ-AU-LAIT GROUND ‘DRAGON’ DISH
YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE SQUARE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)
The dish is finely painted in iron red with a ferocious five-clawed dragon in pursuit of a flaming pearl amid flames and clouds on the central medallion, with a border of rolling and crashing waves interspersed with jagged mountains on the exterior, all reserved on a café-au-lait glaze.
5 ¼ in. (13.4 cm.) diam., box

Provenance

E. T. Hall Collection, no. 288
S. Marchant & Son, London

Exhibited

Oriental Ceramics Society, London; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Iron in the fire: the Chinese Potters’ exploration of iron oxide glazes, 1988, Catalogue, no. 81
S. Marchant & Son, London, Imperial Porcelain of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, 9 June-25 June 1996, Catalogue, p. 39, no. 23

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Lot Essay

The visually striking combination of café-au-lait ground and iron-red decoration is very rare, and only two other pairs of dishes bearing this design appear to be known, one was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 October 1991, lot 846, the other was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 May 2005, lot 1470.

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