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

A very similarly decorated Yongzheng-marked dish with a crossed double-vajra motif is illustrated by Liu Liang-yu, Ch'ing Official and Popular Wares, A Survey of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 5, Taipei, 1991, p. 92. Compare, also, a Kangxi-marked dish decorated on the interior with three bands of Sanskrit text illustrated in Chinese Porcelain: The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong, pp. 78-9, no. 52. The Jingdezhen kilns were often ordered to produce wares with Sanskrit or Tibetan inscriptions of Buddhist texts, which would be given as imperial gifts to Tibetan and Mongolian monasteries, religious dignitaries or officials.