Grand plat à décor famille rose et verte, Chine, dynastie Qing, époque Yongzheng (1723-1735)

à décor en trompe l'œil de dames de cour et enfants sur une terrasse paysagée dans un cartouche en forme de feuille, une gerbe de fleurs en suspension au contour, le cavetto à décor de grues et rinceaux dorés sur fond rouge, le marli avec trois cartouches florales et trois médaillons de phénix sur un fond bleu avec des rinceaux dorés, le revers émaillé blanc à décor de tiges de bambou feuillagées en bleu sur couverte.



A magnificient and large famille rose-verte dish, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period.

The Tectus Collection, Chinese Ceramics, Boras, 1991, p. 250, no. 105.

 

The present dish is exceptional for its magnificent size and intricately detailed and finely painted decoration of court ladies pursuing leisurely activities in a garden setting. The complex decorative scheme is handled with skill and employs a remarkable range of enamel palettes. Although the motif is Chinese, wares of this type were generally made for the export market. The theme of beautiful ladies (meiren) and children surrounded by splendid 'Precious Objects' was much favoured by Westerners of the 18^th century who were fascinated by the splendours of the Chinese court. Although this theme is commonly found on export wares, the depiction of such a large group of courtesans and 'Precious Objects' within a leaf-shaped reserve is most unusual. More common are wares painted with a seated court lady and a child attendant surrounded by 'Precious Objects', such as the dish (d. 21.3 cm) from the J. C. Repelaer collection illustrated in David Howard and John Ayers, China for the West, London, 1978, pl. 149. Another dish of this type, exhibited on loan at the Los Angeles Art Museum 1965-1971, was sold in our New York rooms, 7/8^th May 1971, lot 54. Compare also an octagonal famille-rose dish, the centre painted with a leaf-form panel of a lady seated next to a table holding many antique and scholarly objects and attended by three boys, sold in our New York rooms, 18^th September 1996, lot 244. 

The gilt-painted brown and blue-ground decoration of this piece is also unusual and is somewhat comparable and reminiscent of the opulent effect seen on gilt-painted lacquer wares of the Qing dynasty, for example see a brown lacquer ewer overall painted with gilt flower scroll motif, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo qiqi jinghua, Fuzhou, 2003, pl. 246, together with a brown-lacquer covered box painted in a similar fashion, pl. 245, also from the Qing Court collection.