Page 158 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1972.43-22-23 (C-577-578)
Pair of Small Foliated Dishes

Qing dynasty, Qianlong mark and period (1736-1795)
9
(
Porcelain with colorless glaze, each 1.4 x 8.0 /i6 x 3Vs)
Harry G. Steele Collection, Gift of Grace C. Steele
INSCRIPTIONS
Incised in seal script into the base in two columns of two in the same period. 1
characters each: Qianlong nian zhi [made in the reign of On the interior the cavettos have vertically slip-trailed
Qianlong dynasty] lines dividing the foliations, each of which has incised
floral scrolls. The center of each dish is encircled by a key-
TECHNICAL NOTES fret band, within which are a depressed circle and a dragon
The glaze on the interior and base of each has a slightly uneven among stylized clouds. The dragons are of the type usually
surface. The foot-rings are low and sharply trimmed.
found on ceramics of the Hongzhi (1488-1505) and
Zhengde (1506-1521) reigns of the middle Ming dynasty. 2
PROVENANCE
(Yamanaka, Chicago); sold June 1941 to Harry G. Steele These dishes are characteristic of the antiquarian taste that
[1881-1941], Pasadena; his widow, Grace C. Steele. pervaded the visual arts of the Qianlong reign.
SL
OTH DISHES ARE FINELY MOLDED and extremely thin.
BTheir shapes imitate plum blossoms and are copied NOTES
from a Ding-ware porcelain prototype of the Northern 1. See Medley 1980, no. 9.
Song and Jin dynasties, with parallels in silver and lacquer 2. Medley 1976, figs. 156,157.

142 D E C O R A T I V E A R T S