Page 71 - Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection EXHIBITION, Bonhams London Oct 25 to November 2 2021

The present dish belongs to a group
of Yongzheng dishes, all of similar size,
exquisitely painted with Immortals, which
may have been conceived as part of a set
comprising the complete group of the Eight
Daoist Immortals.

Ruby-red enamel, or ‘Western red’ in
contemporaneous Chinese texts, was an
imported pigment derived from gold. It
was arguably the most special among the
new foreign enamels, not only since it was
dramatically different from all locally created
colours, but also because it was derived from
gold. The Imperial Workshops had apparently
not yet mastered it even in the 6th year of the
Yongzheng Emperor when, under the guidance
of Prince Yunxiang, brother of the Emperor,
eighteen new enamel colours were reported
to have been successfully produced there. To
manage the ruby-red pigment, it is believed
to have been blown through a gauze-covered
tube onto the white porcelain before second
firing, resulting in a delicately mottled red.

The figures depicted on these dishes
seated atop a qilin may be identified as
two of the legendary group of Eight Daoist
Immortals, semi-divine figures believed to
have achieved the highest honours of their
faith and empowered with the ability to
bestow Immortality on whomever was able to
recognise them on earth. The figure carrying
a basket of flowers is Lan Caihe. His earliest
descriptions, believed to date to the tenth
century, describe him as a drunken beggar
who played the castanets and carried long
strings of cash. He was a street performer,
dancing, playing and singing songs to the
Immortals. The second figure, riding on a
Buddhist lion, and playing a flute is Han
Xiangzi. He was believed to have been from a
prominent family in the Tang dynasty, although
vernacular descriptions describe him as
magician who performed tricks with peonies
and wine; see E.Buck, The Eight Immortals
on Yuan and Ming Ceramics, London, 2000,
pp.58-59 and p.126.

Compare with a related ruby-back dish,
Yongzheng, illustrated in Oriental Porcelain:
A Choice from the Boymans-van Beuningen
Museum Collection, Rotterdam, 1995, no.26;
see also a ruby-back dish, Yongzheng,
decorated with a lady Immortal riding a deer
beside a standing attendant, illustrated in
the Royal Academy of Arts, The International
Exhibition of Chinese Art 1935-36, London,
1935, no.2208, and in this Catalogue no.18.

THE PALMER COLLECTION | 69