CHINE, DYNASTIE QING, ÉPOQUE QIANLONG (1736-1795)

The inscription on the base of this piece, Caihua Tang zhi, may be translated as reading 'Made for the Hall of Many Coloured Flowers'. This Hall appears to have been established in the Forbidden City in Beijing during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, and continued to be used by a number of his successors. See a comparable doucai dish illustrated by M. Wilson in Rare Marks on Chinese Ceramics, Percival David Foundation/Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1998, pp. 34-5, no. 7.