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

Chrysanthemum-form dishes, reviving a Song dynasty lacquer shape, were produced in twelve different colours during the Yongzheng period. A complete set of twelve chrysanthemum dishes with Yongzheng marks is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 257. Six are illustrated by Feng Xianming, Wenwu, 1984, p. 37, no. 10, where the author noted that a decree issued in the eleventh year of Yongzheng (corresponding to 1733) instructed 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 `fourty pieces to be fired of every type according to the samples.'

Yongzheng chrysanthemum dishes in ruby-purple enamel are extremely rare. A similar Yongzheng-marked dish in this colour from the H. M. Knight collection was sold at Sotheby’s London, 12 May 1970, lot 90, and another from the Hall Family Collection, dated to Yongzheng-early Qianlong period, was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 2 May 2000, lot 550. For other Yongzheng-marked chrysanthemum dishes sold at auctions, see one in café-au-lait, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 June 2016, lot 3215, two from J. J. Lally & Co., sold at Christie’s New York, 23 March 2023, one in powder-blue enamel, lot 911, the other in purple enamel, lot 912.