Lot Essay
The design of magpies combined with prunus provides a rebus for 'happiness up to the tips of your eyebrows'. See a similar dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong: Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 116, no. 99. Another similar dish was sold in these rooms, 8 November 2011, lot 443.