Lot Essay
An almost identical dish is illustrated by Kerr, Chinese Ceramics, Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911, pl. 86; see also another in the Exhibition of Ch'ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Hong Kong, 1973, no. 87. For yet another example of such 'birthday' dishes, see Bartholomew, 'Botanical Puns in Chinese Art from the Collection of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco', Orientations, September, 1985, pp. 18-34, fig. 24. The author also explains the scene depicted 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 Mountain'.