A FINE DOUCAI 'BIRTHDAY' SAUCER-DISH
THE PROPERTY OF A FAR EASTERN COLLECTOR
A FINE DOUCAI 'BIRTHDAY' SAUCER-DISH

Details
A FINE DOUCAI 'BIRTHDAY' SAUCER-DISH
YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN DOUBLE-CIRCLES AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

With shallow rounded sides, the interior finely painted and enamelled with five bats flying around a fruiting peach tree growing from an overhanging cliff above breaking waves, the exterior with pairs of bats in flight alternating between fruit clusters, each group detailed with a stylised Shou character
6 1/8 in. (15.5 cm.) diam., box

Lot Essay

Previously sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5 November 1996, lot 910.

Compare with other Yongzheng dishes of the same pattern and size, one is illustrated by R. Kerr, Chinese Ceramics, Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, pl. 86; one in the Shanghai Museum of Art, included in the exhibition, Selected Ceramics from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Hu , is illustrated in the Catalogue, pl. 48; and another included in the Exhibition of Ch'ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Hong Kong, 1973, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 87. A comparable pair was sold in these Rooms, 31 October 1994, lot 614.

The auspicious scene depicted on the interior invokes the traditional Chinese birthday greeting: 'May your happiness be as deep as the Eastern Sea, and may you live to be as old as the Southern Mountains'. For a discussion, see T. Bartholomew, 'Botanical Puns in Chinese Art from the Collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco', Orientations, September 1985, pp. 18-34, where a similar dish is illustrated, fig. 24.

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