QIANLONG SEAL MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)

This rare dish belongs to a small group of Qing green and black wares. This style of decoration is unusual in that the design is reserved against black and the whole covered with a transparent green glaze to create a 'silhouette' effect and a lustrous appearance that was difficult to achieve. This unusual technique and palette is an extension of the famille noire decorative style, and is first seen during the Kangxi period. The difficulty of the technique would account for the rarity of pieces produced in the later Yongzheng and Qianlong periods. Yongzheng-marked pieces include a saucer dish and a bottle vase illustrated by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pp. 86-7, nos. 206 and 207. Qianlong-marked examples include the large dish sold at Christie's London, 5 June 1995, lot 210, and again at Sotheby's, Hong Kong, 10 April 2006, lot 1520.