A fine doucai 'peony' dish Mark and Period of Yongzheng

exquisitely painted in brilliant enamels to the interior with a central medallion containing two butterflies fluttering among red and yellow peony blooms above rockwork, delicately picked out in contrasted tones of yellow, green, purple, red and pale blue-green enamels, the pierced ornamental rocks finely drawn in delicate shades of cobalt-blue, all within a double line border below a single line at the rim, the exterior painted with further blue rocks, one issuing peonies and pinks , the other with chrysanthemum and daisies, all with contrasted red, yellow, pale green and purple heads, separated by a single butterfly on both sides, between a single-line border at the rim and double-line at the foot

It is rare to find a Yongzheng dish of this pattern decorated in doucai enamels, although one from the Woodthorpe collection was included in the exhibition Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1951, cat.no. 99, and sold in our London rooms, 6th April 1954, lot 105.

Another similar dish, from the Aykroyd collection, was sold in our London rooms, 17th May 1966, lot 229; and two similar examples were sold in these rooms, 26th October 1993, lot 154, and 25th April 2004, lot 222.