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

Each dish is exquisitely painted in vibrant tones, one depicts a hermit on a mule followed by his attendant crossing a bridge beside a riverside landscape, the other with a fisherman fishing from a rocky shore. The exterior is decorated with long arched stalks of bamboo and lingzhi growing from rockwork.

While a number of Yongzheng doucai dishes with a central medallion scene survive, exceedingly few examples are decorated with figures in landscape. Compare to a Yongzheng doucai ‘immortals’ dish from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, no.219. Compare also to a Yongzheng dish painted with an immortal and his attendant, the exterior further decorated with arched bamboos and lingzhi, housed in the Tsinghua University Art Museum, Beijing.