YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

Chrysanthemum-shaped dishes appear in complete sets of twelve colors, with the most notable set, all with Yongzheng marks, being in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 257. Six are illustrated by Feng Xianming, Wenwu, 1984, p. 37, no. 10, where the author notes that a decree issued in the eleventh year of Yongzheng (1733) instructed Nian Xiyao, Minister of the Imperial Household, to send "the twelve colors of chrysanthemum dishes, one of each color, for the inspection of the permanent guardian of the treasury and chief eunuch Samuha". The decree further mentions "forty pieces to be fired of every type according to the samples". As recorded by A.W. Hummel in Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period, vol. I, pp. 588-590, Nian Xiyao was appointed as a minister of the Imperial Household in 1726, and between 1726-1735 he was in charge of the manufacture of porcelain as well as assuming the post of superintendant of customs at Huaian in Jiangsu province.

Other white-glazed Yongzheng-marked chrysanthemum dishes are known. See one from a set of seven, illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 180. Another dish from the Robert Chang Collection was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 2 November 1999, lot 502, and a single dish previously from the K.W. Woollcombe Boyce collection, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 24 May 1978, lot 185. See, also, the similar dish illustrated in Shimmering Colours: Monochromes of the Yuan to Qing Periods, The Zhuyuetang Collection, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005, no. 25.