Page 101 - MARCHANT-Kangxi-Famille-Verte-FINAL

三 四 十
34. Chinese Imperial porcelain famille verte birthday dish, painted in the centre with a seated lady fanning a fire of branches and rocks,
the flames heightened in iron-red with the smoke ascending, her attendant stands behind holding further branches, encircled on
the border by five butterflies and eighteen leaves and flower sprays on the flat gently everted lipped rim.
盤 圖 五 彩 女 仕 6 inches, 15.2 cm diameter.
Six-character mark of Kangxi within a double ring in underglaze blue and of the period, circa 1713.

• Formerly in the Dr. Ho Ching Yang Collection.
Dr. Ho Ching Yang (1900-1964) was Vice President of Dominick & Dominick, Inc., member of the New York Stock
Exchange, he was president of The Board of Trustees of The China Institute in America. Originally he was a physician and

熙 清 康 medical researcher born in Shanghai, he graduated from Tung Chi University Medical College. He left for England in 1937
but as war broke out in Europe he and his family went to The United States. He received a Master of Public Health Degree
from the Johns Hopkins University.
• This birthday dish is one of a pair included by Marchant in their catalogue of Recent Acquisitions, 2010, no. 23, pp. 38-39.
年 熙 款 制 大 清 康 • A similar dish with three standing ladies in The Percival David Foundation, the British Museum, is illustrated on the front
cover of Transactions of The Oriental Ceramic Society, Vol. 70, 2005-2006 and was included in the exhibition of The World in
Colours: An Exhibition of Ceramics with Coloured Decoration dating from 700-1920, Belonging to the Members of The Oriental
Ceramic Society, 2006, fig. 5, p. 93; another Kangxi marked example, with a lady and attendant was included by The Oriental
Ceramic Society of Hong Kong in an article by R. P. Marchant, Some Interesting Pieces of Marked Ch’ing Porcelain, 23rd
November 1976.
• Two with a different design, one with an equestrian scholar and attendant the other with two ladies and scrolls, with
similar borders to this example although bearing Chenghua marks are included by Regina Krahl in Chinese Ceramics from
the Meiyintang Collection, Volume Two, nos. 773 & 774, p. 144, where the author notes, “These dishes belong to a group,
all of this shape, with the same border design and similarly composed figure scenes in the centre. They are often called
birthday plates, since they are supposed to have been made for the Kangxi emperor’s 60th birthday in 1713, but few
bear reign marks”.
• A series of these dishes in The Percival David Foundation, the British Museum are illustrated by Lady David in Illustrated
Ho Ching Yang 醫
舊 生 藏
Catalogue of Ch’ing Enamelled Wares, in The Percival David Foundation, of Chinese Art, 1958, section 2, pl. I.

100 101

P. 100 P. 101