Page 42 - Wolly & Wallace, July 1, 2020 Chinese Works of Art UK

42
A RARE LARGE CHINESE BLUE AND WHITE DISH
SIX CHARACTER KANGXI MARK AND EARLY IN THE PERIOD 1662-1722
Painted with a lady standing in a garden wearing flowing robes, she holds a fan in one
hand and a sprig of osmanthus held up towards the sun in the other, she presents the
flower to a young boy, the reverse with a paper label for Marchant, 35.8cm.
£8,000-12,000
Provenance: from a British private collection, purchased from Marchant, London, on
4th December 2002. A copy of the invoice is available.
The Chinese word for osmanthus is guihua which is homophonous with guizi meaning ‘your
honourable son’. The image of a lady pointing osmanthus towards the sun therefore expresses
the wish for a son to be a scholar-official holding a high position in court. The bamboo in the
background is emblematic of the scholar’s upright character because it is a tough plant which
bends in the storm but never breaks. The plum blossom is also symbolic of the moral strength
required to be an official, as they are hardy plants which survive through the winter.
Cf. S Marchant & Son, Exhibition of Seventeenth-Century Blue and White and Copper-red
and their Predecessors, p.50, no.48 for a similar dish with this design; see also R Chen,
Qing Shunzhi Kangxi Chao Qinghua Ci (Qing Dynasty Shunzhi and Kangxi Blue and White
Porcelain), p.123, no.61 for a similarly painted Kangxi dish in the collection of the Palace
Museum; see also M Butler and Q Wang, Seventeenth Century Jingdezhen Porcelain from
the Shanghai Museum and the Butler Collections, pp.132-133, no.32 for another related
example.
清康熙 青花庭院教子圖盤
《大清康熙年製》青花楷書款
來源：英國私人收藏，2002年12月4日購於倫敦Marchant（附標籤及發票複印
件）。
盤撇口，口沿施一周醬釉，弧腹，雙圈足，內圈較外圈稍矮，底有青花雙圈
《大清康熙年製》六字楷書款。

40 See paragraphs 4 & 5 of our conditions of business at the back of the catalogue for additional charges on the final hammer prices