A massive yellow-ground green- and aubergine-enameled 'Chuxiugong' 'dragon' charger, Qing dynasty, Guangxu period, circa 1889 | 清光緒 約1889年 黃地紫綠彩雲龍趕珠紋大盤 《儲秀宮製》款

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 20th-21st May 1987, lot 592.

Sotheby's London, 19th June 2002, lot 70.

香港蘇富比1987年5月20至21日，編號592

倫敦蘇富比2002年6月19日，編號70

Porcelains of this type, with Chuxiugong zhi mark, were specifically commissioned for the Dowager Empress Cixi when she was living at the Chuxiu Palace. The origin of its design can be traced back to Kangxi period, as illustrated by an example in the Percival David Collection, illustrated in in Margaret Medley, Illustrated Catalogue of Ming Polychrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1978, no. 146, p.46. However, the size of wares with this mark are significantly larger than their Kangxi prototypes, making them extremely challenging to fire successfully.

Compare a closely related example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Chen Kelun, 'Huafan jinse yongqing Changchun. Cixi he ta de yuyong ciqi [Flourishing blossoms and splendid colors. Cixi and her imperial porcelain]', Forbidden City, September 2019, p.134; another, illustrated in The Great Fortune Chinese and Japanese Porcelain of the 19th and 20th Centuries and Their Forerunners, Stuttgart, 2002, cat. no. 28, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th October 2009, lot 1621; and a third example sold in these rooms, 19th June 2002, lot 70.