Notes

LOT ESSAY The design of this dish is reminiscent of early Ming prototypes and is representative of the antiquarian interests of the Yongzheng Emperor, who was known to have passionately collected and studied material from earlier dynasties. A Xuande-marked prototype is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and illustrated in the Special Exhibition of Ming Xuande Ceramics, Taipei, 1980, no. 82. Another Xuande example is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, inventory no. OA1968,4-22.31. Several Yongzheng dishes similar to the current dish have been published, including one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, illustrated by S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 248; one in the Ise Collection, illustrated in Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, ed., The Enchanting Chinese Ceramics from the Ise Collection, Osaka, 2017, pp. 198-99, no 78; one published by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994, vol. 2, no. 843, and later sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7 April 2011, lot 75; one previously in the Bulgari Collection in Rome, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 June 2011, lot 3570; and another example sold at Christie’s London, 14 May 2013, lot 189.