Page 18 - 2019 October Important Chinese Art Sotheby's Hong Kong

This piece belongs to a distinct group of doucai dishes
painted with ferocious side-facing dragons at the centre
and with colourful wispy clouds on the well. Known as wuse
yun (Five-coloured clouds), they were considered potent
auspicious omens, and multiple sightings of them are
recorded in palace documents (Lin Lina, ‘Yongzgheng chao
zhu xiangrui fuying [Auspicious signs of the Yongzheng
period]’, Harmony and Integrity: The Yongzheng Emperor and
His Times, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2009, pp. 391-
393). Auspicious motifs flourished in the Yongzheng period,
probably due to the somewhat unusual circumstances
that led the Emperor to the throne, which raised persistent
questions over his right to rule and thus made him
particularly receptive of these designs.
Dishes of this pattern are known in a variety of sizes ranging
from 11 to 20 cm in diameter. A pair of closely related dishes
from the collection of Madam L. Vente, was sold at Christie’s
Paris, 15th June 2004, lot 186, one of which was sold again
in our Paris rooms, 9th June 2010, lot 84; a slightly larger
one in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, was included in the
Museum’s exhibition The Wonders of the Potter’s Palette,
Hong Kong, 1984, cat. no. 45; and another from the Edward
T. Chow collection, was sold in these rooms, 25th November
1980, lot 141. See also a pair of slightly smaller dishes of
this design, included in the Min Chiu Society Silver Jubilee
exhibition Anthology of Chinese Art, Hong Kong Museum
of Art, Hong Kong, 1985, cat. no. 175; and another dish
illustrated in Ye Peilang, Beauty of Ceramics. Gems of the
Doucai, vol. 6, Taipei, 1993, pl. 104, and sold in these rooms,
30th April 1991, lot 120A.

16 SOTHEBY ’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART