A blue and yellow 'lotus bouquet' dish, Seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795)

Lot 16. A blue and yellow 'lotus bouquet' dish, Seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795); 21.5 cm., 8 1/2  in. Estimate 450,000 - 650,000 HKD (44,431 — 64,177 EUR). Lot sold 1,360,000 HKD (134,279 EUR). Courtesy Sotheby's

the rounded sides rising from a short tapered foot to a lipped rim, finely painted in shades of cobalt blue against a bright yellow enamelled ground, the interior with a ribboned bouquet of lotus and other water plants, surrounded on the sides by a composite flower scroll of paired roses, lotus, camellias and other blossoms, all below a 'classic' scroll border at the rim, the exterior similarly decorated with a composite flower scroll between a double blue line around the foot and a band of key-fret at the rim, the base enamelled yellow and inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character seal mark within a square panel reserved in white.

LITERATURE: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 763.

NOTE: Dishes of this design, which originated in blue-and-white in the Yongle period (1403-24), were copied both in the Yongzheng (1723-35) and Qianlong (1736-95) reigns, with and without yellow enamel to cover the background. They come in a variety of sizes, both smaller and larger than the present dish.

A similar dish is illustrated together with a pair of dishes of Yongzheng mark and period of this design and size, in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV: Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pls. 91 and 69, the Qianlong example sold at Christie’s New York 22nd April 1999, lot 335. Another Qianlong dish of this design from the collection of Lorant Goldschlager of Monte Carlo was sold at Christie’s London, 4th June 1973, lot 181.

Compare also a larger dish of this design of Yongzheng mark and period, with the borders at the rim inside and out, and above the foot additionally covered with green enamel, also in the Meiyintang collection, illustrated in Krahl, op.cit., vol. 2, no. 762, and sold in these rooms, 7th April 2011, lot 74; as well as two Yongle prototypes in blue-and-white, both of larger size and with the lotus bouquet curved to one side as if swaying in a breeze, Krahl, op.cit., vol. 2, nos. 665 and 666, the former sold in these rooms, 4th April 2012, lot 37.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part V - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong | 08 avr. 2013