A café-au-lait-glazed dish, Qianlong six-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1736-1795). Estimate $60,000 – $80,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015
The shallow, rounded sides rise from a low foot to the slightly flared rim and are encircled by a double bow-string band. The dish is covered inside and out with a slightly iridescent glaze of reddish-brown color, and the base is white. 6 ¾ in. (17.1 cm.) diam., box
Notes: It is unusual to find a dish of this type with a Qianlong mark, but a pair in the Zhuyetang Collection is illustrated inShimmering Colours: Monochromes of the Yuan to Qing Periods, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005, p. 230, no. 153. See, also, the two dishes of the same size sold at Christie's New York, 29 March 2006, lot 459 and 19 September 2006, lot 380.
For a Kangxi precursor see the dish in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, no. 233. The eight-character mark on the base may be translated, 'made for the Zhonghe Pavilion in the renzi year of Kangxi', corresponding to 1672. Yongzheng-marked examples are represented by one illustrated in Old Oriental Ceramics Donated by Mr. Yokogawa, Tokyo National Museum, 1953, pl. 389, and another included in the exhibition, Chinese Antiquities from the Brian S. McElney Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1987, no. 100.
Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 17 - 18 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza