This dish was probably produced early in the Yongzheng period, as it is closely related to the so-called 'birthday' dishes of the Kangxi period. The rendition of 'one hundred bats' on the present dish is very slightly different from the earlier prototype, but it still maintains the use of highly auspicious decorations. Compare the dish with a few similar Kangxi examples that are incised with the birthday greeting, hong fu qi tian (happiness as vast as the heavens), one illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Vol. 2, Hong Kong, 1994, pl. 786; a pair included in the Honolulu Academy of Arts exhibition, The Barbara Hutton Collection of Chinese Porcelain, 1956, illustrated in the Catalogue, pl. X (right); and another that sold in Hong Kong, 20 May 1986, lot 74. Compare also a Kangxi dish with the same border of bats, painted in the famille verte palette on the centre, sold in these Rooms, The Robert Chang Collection, 2 November 1999, lot 520.