YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735), THE ENAMELS POSSIBLY LATER

The interior of the dish is finely decorated with pink poppy sprays, blue asters and rocks, below a poetic inscription which eulogises the fragrance and brilliant colours of the flowers, and three red seals each containing two characters reading jia li (beauty), si shi (four seasons) and chang chun (eternal spring) respectively. The exterior is applied with a bright lemon yellow enamel.

Compare the present lot to a pair of Yongzheng mark and period falangcai dishes decorated with poppies and poetic inscriptions in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei; one is illustrated in Portrayals from a Brush Divine. A Special Exhibition on the Tricentennial of Giuseppe Castiglione’s Arrival in China, Taipei, 2015, cat. no. II-05, and the other is illustrated in Special Exhibition of Ch’ing Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of the Imperial Ateliers, Taipei, 1992, cat. no. 98. Also see a Yongzheng period dish decorated in falangcai together with a copy painted in the Republican period, illustrated by Geng Baochang in Ming Qing Ciqi Jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, p. 249, figs 426 & 427.