An exceptional Imperial Famille Rose 'Peach' dish , Yongzheng six-character mark within double squares and of the period (1723-1735). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2014
The dish is finely potted with thin translucent sides rising to a flared mouth rim, exquisitely enamelled on the exterior with two branches in various shades of sepia growing from above the foot, bearing three ripe peaches rendered in shaded tones of bright pink and yellow and flowers in pastel pink, the other side with two iron-red bats in flight. The design continues over the rim onto the interior with three further bats hovering above five peaches shaded from pink to green amidst blossoms and leaves rendered in two tones of green. 8 1/4 in. (21 cm.) diam. Estimate HK$5,000,000 - HK$7,000,000 ($647,864 - $907,009). Price Realized HK$5,080,000 ($658,076)
Provenance; The Barbara Hutton (1912-1979) Collection
Sold at Sotheby's London, 6 July 1971, lot 267
Sold at Sotheby's London, 9 June 2004, lot 218
Notes: The bowls and dishes painted with clusters of fruiting peach branches are among the finest products of the Imperial kilns of the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns. The porcelain is usually exceptionally fine and pure; the design is exquisitely composed around the centre of the dish and over the rim, curling to the underside section of the dish. This painting style was probably influenced by textile design and flower painting of the Yongzheng period.
Examples of these peach dishes are found in major museum and private collections worldwide, including one in the Shanghai Museum and illustrated in Ancient Chinese Ceramics Gallery, Shanghai, 1996, pl. 83; one in the Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, illustrated in Qing Imperial Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 62; one in the British Museum, bequeathed by Reginald R. Cory, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Greatest Collections, Kodansha Series, vol. 5, Tokyo, 1982, no. 226; another in the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, op. cit., Kodansha Series, vol. 9, no. 98; one at the Asia Society, New York, published in Handbook of the Mr and Mrs John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, New York, 1981, p. 82; one exhibited in Selections of Chinese Art from Private Collections, China Institute in America, New York, 1967, Catalogue, no. 8; one exhibited in Exhibition of Famous Pieces of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Osaka, 1983, no. 84; one in Chinese Ceramics, the S. C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, vol. II, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 146, no. 104; and another illustrated by A. du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History, London, 1984, p. 242, no. 3.
Similar dishes were also sold at auction: one from the collections of John M. Crawford Jr., Au Bak Ling and Robert Chang was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 October 2003, lot 665; one from the collections of C. Oswald Liddell, Charles Russell and now in the Gulexuan Collection, most recently sold at Sotheby's London, 8 June 1993, lot 91; and one from the British Rail Pension Fund, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 16 May 1989, lot 88. A Qianlong-period example of the same design from C.T. Loo and the Meiyintang Collections was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 4 April 2012, lot 27.
Larger dishes were also painted in this pattern, such as the spectacular dish in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated by R. Scott, A Guide to the Collection, London, 1989, no. 111.
Christie's. IMPERIAL CHINESE TREASURES FROM A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTION, 28 May 2014, Hong Kong .http://www.christies.com/