Page 56 - Sotheby's Fine Chinese Art NYC September 2023

The Chuxiugong (Palace of Gathering Elegance) is one of the
Painted with dragons in pursuit of flaming pearls in green
six Western palaces in the Forbidden City, favored by the enamel against an underglaze-blue ground, the present
Empress Dowager Cixi and her chief residence between 1856 charger is faithfully based on Kangxi period designs.
and 1885. Ronald W. Longsdorf in ‘The Tongzhi Imperial Compare a Kangxi mark and period ‘dragon’ dish in the Baur
Wedding Porcelain’, Orientations, October 1996, p. 70, notes Collection, illustrated in John Ayers, The Baur Collection.
that Cixi had the palace refurbished on her 50th birthday Chinese Ceramics, vol. IV, Geneva, 1974, pl. A555.
in 1884, with luxurious objects of monumental size, many
modeled after prototypes from the 18th century. Measuring over 70 cm in diameter, the present charger
ranks amongst the larger known examples of chargers
Porcelains with Chuxiugong zhi marks were likely bearing Chuxiugong marks. Compare a closely related
commissioned to commemorate this significant palace. example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in
Research also suggests that pieces with this mark were Chen Kelun, op. cit., p. 134; another was sold in our Paris
intended as imperial gifts, instead of daily use (Chen Kelun, rooms, 18th December 2012, lot 146. Compare two smaller
‘Huafan jinse yongqing Changchun. Cixi he tade yuyong examples of the same design, each measuring around
ciqi [Flourishing blossoms and splendid colors. Cixi and 48cm in diameter: the first sold in our Hong Kong rooms,
her imperial porcelain]’, Forbidden City, September 2019, 31st October - 1st November 1974, lot 295; the second sold
p. 134). The large-sized dishes with dragon decorations and at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th April 1996, lot 782. For a
marked with the name of Cixi’s residential palace not only smaller type, measuring 32 cm in diameter, see one from the
symbolize the grandeur and authority of the imperial throne, Kwan Collection, included in the exhibition The Splendour
but also her significant influence within the court. of Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong,
1992, cat. no. 143, and sold at Christie’s Singapore,
30th March 1997, lot 345.
THE LEGACY OF CIXI. LATE QING PORCELAIN FROM THE BARBARA JEAN LEVY COLLECTION 109