Page 333 - CHRISTIE'S Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art 09/14 - 15 / 17

1217 (reverse)
AN IRON-RED-DECORATED DISH

KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
The dish is decorated in the center with Shoulao seated holding a lingzhi beside a recumbent
spotted deer, and a staf suspending a basket flled with peaches, all within a band of bats
on the everted rim. The exterior is decorated with petal lappets and a leafy band with fowers.
7√ in. (20 cm.) diam.

$15,000-20,000

The present dish is replete with wishes for long-life and prosperity, including the God of
Longevity, a deer, peaches, lingzhi fungus and bats. According to R. E. Scott in For the
Imperial Court: Qing Porcelain from the Percival David Foundation, London, 1997, p. 48, such
dishes were unlikely actually to have been used during the birthday celebrations, but were
probably presented to guests as a gift.

Such dishes were made in sets, of which one type features incised characters surrounded
by a similar border of iron-red bats: see, for example, a Kangxi-marked dish illustrated in
The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Miscellaneous Enamelled
Porcelains, Plain Tricoloured Porcelains, Shenzhen, 2009, p. 21, no. 18. Another type features
a related composition of Shoulao decorated in the famille verte palette, such as the Kangxi-
marked dish sold at Christie’s New York, 16-17 September 2010, lot 1379. The present dish
is particularly unusual in its exclusive use of shades of iron-red to depict Shoulao.
清康熙 礬紅彩壽老圖盤