A RARE YELLOW-GROUND FAMILLE ROSE 'LOTUS' CIRCULAR NARCISSUS TRAY

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF RONALD W. LONGSDORF

Details

A RARE YELLOW-GROUND FAMILLE ROSE 'LOTUS' CIRCULAR NARCISSUS TRAY
TONGZHI EARLY GUANGXU PERIOD (1862-1908)

Of circular cross-section, raised on five low feet, the exterior sides decorated in bright enamels to depict lush lotus flowers and leaves with a further dragonfly in flight, inscribed in iron-red below the mouth rim with the characters, Dayazhai, beside the Tian Di Yi Jia Chun sealmark, all reserved on yellow-ground, the flat rim with a blue enamel keyfret band, the interior applied evenly with a light turquoise enamel, the base bearing an iron-red Yong Qing Chang Chun mark
7 1/8 in. (18.1 cm.) diam., box

Literature

Ronald W. Longsdorf, 'Dayazhai Ware: Porcelains of the Empress Dowager', Orientations, March 1992, p. 52, fig. 15

Lot Essay

Two identical circular trays of this pattern, the first enamelled with a green-ground and the other with a blue-ground, from Beijing Palace Museum collection are illustrated in Guanyang Yuci, The Forbidden City Publishing House, 2007, p. 205. According to Palace records, the note accompaning the sketch mentioned that four pairs of green, light blue and yellow-ground trays of this shape and pattern were commissioned, see op. cit., p. 204, no. 49 (fig. 1).

The inspiration for this pattern is probably from the Kangxi period, and is comparable to a yellow-ground enamelled winecup from the Barbara Hutton collection sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3 November 1998, lot 960.

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