A pair of yellow-ground grisaille-painted 'Tihedian' 'peony' fishbowls, Qing dynasty, Guangxu period, circa 1885 | 清光緒 約1885年 黃地墨彩牡丹紋缽罐一對 《體和殿製》款

Sotheby's Amsterdam, 17th October 1995, lot 313.

阿姆斯特丹蘇富比1995年10月17日，編號313

Tihedian (Hall of Embodied Harmony) was one of the six palaces in the north-western section of the Forbidden City. As part of the renovation work in celebration the 50th birthday of the Dowager Empress, this building was redesigned to connect to Chuxiu Palace, her place of residence, transforming it into her dining area.

Pieces bearing Tihedian zhi marks are often characterized by their smaller size, floral motifs, and ink-colored enamel against a color ground, and were probably created for decorating this palace. The flower motifs on this pair are similar to the peony painted by Dowager Empress Cixi, 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. 130.

Compare a closely related example, on a yellow ground but decorated with famille-rose enamel, illustrated in Gugong zhencang Cixi de ciqi [Porcelain of Cixi collected in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2013, pl. 54; and a jar with same decoration but of larger size, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30th May 2018, lot 3126; another jar, with similar peony decoration but on a turquoise ground, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 3rd June 2016, lot 870.