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10. Chinese Imperial porcelain famille verte deep saucer dish painted with three standing figures from the stories of the Water Margin,
人 滸 圖 物 五 盤 水 彩 the central figure and leader Song Jiang holding his gilt sword and wearing a long blue robe, tied at the waist between a white egret
medallion covering fur edged armour visible at the shoulder and skirt, with his name on a two-character banner over his shoulder
and wearing a double feathered cap, between the monk Hua Heshang wearing a yellow robe and holding a staff and the figure of
Zhang Qing with one hand raised holding a stone ready to throw at the enemy and the other reaching for a further stone in his
satchel, all amongst rockwork and plants, the underside covered in a pale green glaze.
6 √ inches, 17.5 cm diameter.
Six-character mark of Kangxi within a double ring in underglaze blue and of the period, circa 1690.

清 康 熙 • Formerly in the Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Blake Collection.
• Sold by Sotheby’s, London, in their auction of The Mr. and Mrs. E. C. Blake Collection, 8th July 1958, no. 99, purchased
by Sparks.
• Formerly in the Sir Alfred Aykroyd Collection.
年 清 大 康 款 熙 制 • Sold by Sotheby’s, London, in their auction of An Important Collection of Chinese Porcelain, The Property of the Late Sir Alfred
Aykroyd, 17th May 1966, no. 225, purchased by Spink.
• Formerly in the F. G. & E. H. Morrill Collection, collection no. 67.
• Exhibited by Sir Harry Garner, K. B. E., C. B. and Basil Gray, Esq. in the exhibition of Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the
Manchu Dynasty, 1951, no. 23, and included in Transactions of The Oriental Ceramics Society, 1950-51, Vol. 26.
• Sold by Bluett & Sons, London, 22nd September 1986.
• Included by Marchant in their exhibition of Imperial Chinese Porcelain, Ceramics and Works of Art, 2013, no. 20, (one of a pair)
pp. 44-45.
• A similar pair, formerly in the collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Clark and The van Ouwerkerk Collection, Switzerland, were
included in the above Oriental Ceramics Society exhibition, nos. 124-125, and were also included by Marchant in their Recent
Acquisitions catalogue, 2006, no. 14, pp. 28-29; a further dish from this rare set, with green glazed underside and Imperial reign
儷 舊 藏 mark, bequest of Edmund C. Converse, 1921, is illustrated by Suzanne E. Valenstein in The World’s Great Collections, Oriental
E. C. Blake 伉
Ceramics, Vol. 11, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 129, collection no. 21.175.39; another also from this set bequeathed
by The Rev. Valentine-Richards in 1933 is in The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, collection no. C39.1933.
• A related dish is illustrated by Wang Qingzheng in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, no. 132, p. 305.
• Another dish from a similar set, without a Kangxi mark, in The Victoria and Albert Museum, is illustrated by Rose Kerr in
Chinese Ceramics, Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, 1644-1911, London, 1986, no. 81, pp. 102-103, where the author explains
that these scenes are taken from the famous 1657 edition of the Water Margin illustrated by Chen Hongshou who in the 1640’s
designed a set of 40 playing cards depicting similar scenes.
• This saucer dish forms part of a unique set where the undersides have a green glaze and a Kangxi reign mark.
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