A BLUE AND WHITE 'SENSE OF SMELL' DISH

KANGXI PERIOD

Details

A BLUE AND WHITE 'SENSE OF SMELL' DISH
KANGXI PERIOD
Painted with European court ladies standing on a terrace strewn with flowers, each holding a floral sprig to smell while a servant to one side bears a basket of more flowers, the petal-molded border featuring panels of scholars in landscapes alternate with panels of blossoming boughs, all on a wan-fret ground, the back with further flower-filled petal panels and a border of floral sprigs alternating with ribbon-tied emblems, a six-character underglaze blue Chenghua mark within a double circle on the base, an old metal boss in the center
10½ in. (26.6 cm.) diameter

Lot Essay

The present subject is after late 17th century engravings of fashionable court figures by the French brothers Nicholas, Robert and Henri Bonnart, specifically from their series 'The Five Senses'. The brothers Bonnart were famed for their prints of the latest fashions in court costume, which they sold from studios in the rue St. Jacques.
A similar dish in the Ionides Collection and then the Mottahedeh Collection is illustrated by D. Howard & J. Ayers, China for the West, London, 1978, vol. I, p. 78, where the authors note the six-character mark is "an unusual feature on export wares of this reign".

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