A doucai 'narcissus' dish, Mark and period of Yongzheng | 清雍正 闘彩靈仙祝壽圖盤 《大清雍正年製》款

A dish of this design was included in the exhibition The Hundred Flowers. Botanical Motifs in Chinese Art, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, 1985, cat. no. 46, where the elegant flower motif is explained by Bartholomew as a rebus which can be translated 'Fungus Fairy bestows birthday greetings.' Similar dishes are also published in Spencer, Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, pl. 137, from the Chang Foundation, Taipei, previously sold in these rooms, 20th May 1987, lot 537; in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyantang Collection, London, 1994, vol. II, pl. 765; and in Nakazawa, Chinese Ceramics in the Toguri Museum of Art, Orientations, April 1988, fig. 19.  Also compare with a similar dish from the collection of the British Rail Pension Fund, sold in our London rooms, 16th May 1989, lot 69 and again 1st November 1999, lot 364.

This design of flowers and rocks is also known from two kesi panels, probably of earlier date, woven with the name of the Song painter Cui Po, one from the Imperial Collection, included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Government Exhibits for the International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London, 1935, vol. IV, no. 11; the other from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in the exhibition The Arts of the Ming Dynasty, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1952, cat. no. 328.