Page 14 - 2020 September 22 Kangxi Porcelain Asia Week NYC

9/2/2020 Kangxi Porcelain – A Private Collection | Sotheby's

The present pair represents a rare variation of a group of finely potted and painted ‘birthday’ dishes, featuring auspicious themes
of longevity, made at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen most likely to commemorate the Kangxi Emperor's sixtieth birthday in
1713. Among this superlative group of wares, dishes of similar diminutive size with foliate rims are exceptionally rare, with no other
published examples known. Related dishes depicting pairs of beauties holding offerings, but of larger size and with straight rims,
include one in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, illustrated in The Severance and Greta Millikin Collection, Cleveland, 1990,
pl. 70; and a second example, formerly in the Elphinstone Collection, now on loan from the Percival David Foundation of Chinese
Art to the British Museum, London, included in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ch'ing Enamelled Wares, London, 1973, pl. 890; and a
pair in the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Cologne, published in Porzellanschätze der Kangxi-Zeit/ Porcelain Treasures of the
Kangxi Period, Hetjens Deutsches Keramikmuseum, Dusseldorf, 2015, pls 7 and 8.

Compare also larger examples of this type with plain rims, one with a similar scene of attendants carrying a ewer and a jue, sold
first at Christie's New York, 2nd December 1993, lot 293, and again in our Hong Kong rooms, 1st November 1994, lot 63; and
another sold in these rooms, 15th September 1999, lot 87.

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