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Lot Essay
Samuel C. Davis was the son of a prominent family in St. Louis and gained his interest in Chinese ceramics while embarking on a world tour after graduating from Harvard University in 1893 and also from attending the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition where there were displays of Asian art. He purchased many of his pieces from C.T. Loo. On his death in 1940, he bequeathed two hundred and two pieces of porcelain, as well as stone, bronze and lacquer to the St. Louis Museum of Art. He also gave some pieces to Harvard University. His brother was Dwight F. Davis, after whom the international tennis tournament Davis Cup is named.
Pierced rim dishes of this type bearing Qianlong reign marks are extremely rare. One other Qianlong-marked example is known, which is a slightly smaller dish of the same form, decorated with a similar 'jewel' in the centre but surrounded by further jewels on the well instead of lotus and bats as on the current dish, all on a white ground, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Dishes of this rare design were produced in larger quantities during the Jiaqing period, as there are a number of surviving examples bearing Jiaqing reign marks. This suggests the possibility that the current pair of dishes and the National Palace Museum example were made towards the end of the Qianlong reign, or even during the years when the Qianlong Emperor abdicated and styled himself as Emperor Emeritus. The purpose of the apertures on the rims is still unknown, though generally it has been accepted that this group of wares served as offering dishes in the court. However no other example, whether with Qianlong or Jiaqing mark, decorated on a yellow ground appears to be known.
Several Jiaqing-marked pierced rim dishes on various coloured grounds have been published. It is interesting to note that these Jiaqing examples are all decorated on the well with alternating lotus blooms and geometric 'jewels', differing from the lotus and bat decorations on the current pair and the band of jewels flanked by Western-style foliage on the National Palace Museum example. The published Jiaqing dishes include a ruby-ground example in the Weishaupt Collection, illustrated by Gunhild Avitabile in From the Dragon's Treasure, London, 1987, no. 21; a turquoise-ground example donated by T.T. Tsui to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum (accession no. 1997.97.172); another turquoise-ground one formerly in the E.T. Chow Collection and sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30 October 2002, lot 258; two ruby-ground examples, one sold at Christie's New York, 2 June 1989, lot 218, another from the R.J.S. Collection, sold at Christie’s Paris, 6 July 2022, lot 33.
Compare also to a Jiaqing-marked dish of the same shape and similar design on a yellow ground but without piercing on the rim, in the National Palace Museum and illustrated by Liu Liang-yu in A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 5, Taipei, 1991, p. 217.
Pierced rim dishes of this type bearing Qianlong reign marks are extremely rare. One other Qianlong-marked example is known, which is a slightly smaller dish of the same form, decorated with a similar 'jewel' in the centre but surrounded by further jewels on the well instead of lotus and bats as on the current dish, all on a white ground, in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Dishes of this rare design were produced in larger quantities during the Jiaqing period, as there are a number of surviving examples bearing Jiaqing reign marks. This suggests the possibility that the current pair of dishes and the National Palace Museum example were made towards the end of the Qianlong reign, or even during the years when the Qianlong Emperor abdicated and styled himself as Emperor Emeritus. The purpose of the apertures on the rims is still unknown, though generally it has been accepted that this group of wares served as offering dishes in the court. However no other example, whether with Qianlong or Jiaqing mark, decorated on a yellow ground appears to be known.
Several Jiaqing-marked pierced rim dishes on various coloured grounds have been published. It is interesting to note that these Jiaqing examples are all decorated on the well with alternating lotus blooms and geometric 'jewels', differing from the lotus and bat decorations on the current pair and the band of jewels flanked by Western-style foliage on the National Palace Museum example. The published Jiaqing dishes include a ruby-ground example in the Weishaupt Collection, illustrated by Gunhild Avitabile in From the Dragon's Treasure, London, 1987, no. 21; a turquoise-ground example donated by T.T. Tsui to the Hong Kong Heritage Museum (accession no. 1997.97.172); another turquoise-ground one formerly in the E.T. Chow Collection and sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 30 October 2002, lot 258; two ruby-ground examples, one sold at Christie's New York, 2 June 1989, lot 218, another from the R.J.S. Collection, sold at Christie’s Paris, 6 July 2022, lot 33.
Compare also to a Jiaqing-marked dish of the same shape and similar design on a yellow ground but without piercing on the rim, in the National Palace Museum and illustrated by Liu Liang-yu in A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 5, Taipei, 1991, p. 217.