Page 46 - Lieber Collection Chinese Art

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TWO LARGE VERTE-IMARI DISHES, QING DYNASTY, KANGXI PERIOD, C. 1720, each brightly enameled
in the center with a vase of flowers in a balustraded terrace within an underglaze-blue and gilt-decorated trellis diaper band reserved
with alternating butterfly and flower cartouches, the rim in underglaze-blue with iron-red and gilt painted flowerheads, reserved with
elaborately decorated panels of birds or butterfly among blossoms, the underside with flowering branches and a border of six cartouches
enclosing a butterfly, crustaceans and floral sprays on a diaper ground, the center of the base with a wheel-engraved Japanese Palace,
Dresden inventory mark N:I20 over the letter I (2)
⌲Ꮴ⛆ ㈱1720Ꭱ ρᒖ᣼䛾㟞⨣ృ๔ⰑږУ
Diameters 15¼ in., 38.8 cm
$ 20,000-30,000

PROVENANCE ҳ⎽
Collection of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, ∏㭚స⢸㫖ٸḛ䖥ፊӜດऑ᫜➦ἰ喍1670 1733喎ᩣ㫼喑
೏
King of Poland (1670-1733), Saxony, Dresden, inv. 㫖ٸḛ喑ᓤ㉜᫜䵀喑㌕㮌N 120 I
no. N:120 I Ralph M Chait Galleries喑㈽㈱
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York.

The present examples are based on Japanese Imari plates of the same type and decoration. Due to its
popularity, the pattern was copied in China, as well as Europe. Notable European factories that copied the
pattern include Meissen (circa 1725), Frankenthal and Warsaw faïence (both circa 1770). For examples of all
three, along with a Chinese original, see Fredrich H. Hofmann, Das Porzellan, Berlin, 1932, pls. 493-496.
These types of dishes were produced in various sizes, a small 22 cm diameter example from the Mottahedeh
collection is illustrated in David Howard and John Ayers, China for the West, 1978, Vol. I, pp. 144-145, cat.
th
no. 126, and subsequently sold in these rooms on 30 January 1985, lot 75. Larger examples measuring 54 cm
also exist, such as one in the Salting collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and illustrated in
John Ayers, Oliver Impey, J.V.G. Mallet, Porcelain for Palaces, London, 1990, cat. no. 257.
The incised numbers on the present pair, N:120 I, indicates that these were in the collection of Augustus the
Strong (Augustus II), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland (1670-1733). An avid art collector, he amassed
an extensive collection of porcelain which was housed in the ‘Japanese Palace’ in Dresden. A similarly sized
example to the present pair, at 34.4 cm, from the Boymans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, is illustrated
in Christiaan J. A. Jörg, Famille Verte, Groningen, 2011, cat. no. 47, bearing inventory number N:279. Another
pair of similar size, and bearing the same inventory number as the aforementioned example, was sold at
th
Christie’s London, 11 July 2006, lot 177.

44 SOTHEBY’S