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Lot Essay
Each dish is thinly potted with low rounded sides rising from a shallow foot ring to an everted rim with a gently rounded edge. Both are superbly enamelled in varying shades of pink, green, brown, yellow, white, black and iron-red. Each of the exterior is designed with three peaches on growing on flowering branches beside two bats. The design continues over the rim and into the interior with a further five peaches and three bats.
The present pair of dishes belongs to a group of dishes that are decorated with a total of eight peaches growing on flowering branches and accompanied by five bats, forming the auspicious wufu, from the Yongzheng period. Examples of similar dishes, with Yongzheng marks within a double square or a double circle, are in museums and private collections worldwide, and it appears that those with a double square mark, are much rarer.
For other examples with double-circle marks in this size, see one from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, now in the collection of Asia Society Galleries, New York, illustrated in Treasures of Asian Art, New York, 1994, no. 198; one from the Jingguantang Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 5 November 1997, lot 878A; and a third one sold at Sotheby’s London, 20 June 2001, lot 13.
For examples with double-square marks of comparable size to the current pair of dishes, refer to one in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated by P. Lam in Qing Imperial Porcelain, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, no. 62; a pair from the Barbara Hutton Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3319; a dish in the British Museum Collection, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 5, Kodansha series, 1981, no. 226 (20.6 cm.); and one from the John M. Crawford, Au Bak Ling and Robert Chang collections, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 October 2003, lot 665 (20.9 cm.).
Compare also larger dishes with this design which all have marks in double-circles, such as one illustrated in Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Kodansha series, 1980, col. pl. 63 (50.5 cm.); and another in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, the Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 66, no. 56.
It is believed by many scholars that this particular design was applied to vessels made for the celebration of imperial birthdays. The composition of eight peaches and five bats is very auspicious. The eight peaches symbolise extended long life through their association with Shoulao, the Star God of the Longevity, and also through association with the peaches of longevity grown in the orchard of the Queen Mother of the West. The five red bats provide rebuses both for good fortune and for the Five Blessings of longevity, health, wealth, love of virtue and a peaceful death.
The present pair of dishes belongs to a group of dishes that are decorated with a total of eight peaches growing on flowering branches and accompanied by five bats, forming the auspicious wufu, from the Yongzheng period. Examples of similar dishes, with Yongzheng marks within a double square or a double circle, are in museums and private collections worldwide, and it appears that those with a double square mark, are much rarer.
For other examples with double-circle marks in this size, see one from the John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, now in the collection of Asia Society Galleries, New York, illustrated in Treasures of Asian Art, New York, 1994, no. 198; one from the Jingguantang Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 5 November 1997, lot 878A; and a third one sold at Sotheby’s London, 20 June 2001, lot 13.
For examples with double-square marks of comparable size to the current pair of dishes, refer to one in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated by P. Lam in Qing Imperial Porcelain, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, no. 62; a pair from the Barbara Hutton Collection, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3319; a dish in the British Museum Collection, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 5, Kodansha series, 1981, no. 226 (20.6 cm.); and one from the John M. Crawford, Au Bak Ling and Robert Chang collections, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 October 2003, lot 665 (20.9 cm.).
Compare also larger dishes with this design which all have marks in double-circles, such as one illustrated in Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Kodansha series, 1980, col. pl. 63 (50.5 cm.); and another in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, the Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 66, no. 56.
It is believed by many scholars that this particular design was applied to vessels made for the celebration of imperial birthdays. The composition of eight peaches and five bats is very auspicious. The eight peaches symbolise extended long life through their association with Shoulao, the Star God of the Longevity, and also through association with the peaches of longevity grown in the orchard of the Queen Mother of the West. The five red bats provide rebuses both for good fortune and for the Five Blessings of longevity, health, wealth, love of virtue and a peaceful death.