YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN DOUBLE CIRCLES AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

The qilin is a very auspicious animal as it is said to live for a thousand years and to be the noblest of all animals and therefore to represent perfect goodness. It was believed to tread so lightly and carefully that it left no footprints and it damaged no living things with its hooves. The appearance of a qilin was supposed to be the sign of a virtuous ruler and the book on the back of the qilin symbolises knowledge and accomplishment. A similar dish also with gilded mouth rim is in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Constrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 238, no. 218. Dishes of this same pattern but without the gilding are published, compare to an example from the Chang Foundation, illustrated by J. Spencer, Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, 1990, no. 140; another from the Edward T. Chow Collection, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1981, lot 560; and one sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 November 2012, lot 2197.