A PAIR OF FAMILLE-VERTE 'FIGURAL' DISHES QING DYNASTY, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

each with shallow rounded sides merging with the low tapered foot and the flat everted rim, delicately painted with figural scenes in soft famille-verte enamels and picked out with butterflies, peach blossoms and petals on the rim, the first with the scholar Meng Haoren riding through snow on a donkey, followed by an attendant on foot carrying a flowering prunus branch, the other depicting two ladies in a garden working on scrolls in front of pierced rocks, bamboos and shrubs, the exterior left undecorated, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a spurious six-character Chenghua marks within a double ring

Collection of The Hon. Irwin Boyle Laughlin (1871-1941), Meridian House, Washington, D.C.
By descent to his widow, Therese Iselin Laughlin (d. 1958).
By descent to their daughter, Gertrude Laughlin Chanler (1914-1999), Genesco, New York (until 1959).
Sotheby’s London, 30th June 1959, lot 81.
Sotheby’s New York, 1st June 1988, lot 177.

Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, nos. 773-4.

The rim of the dish with ladies has some frittings, and a shallow flake measuring 0.5 x 0.15 cm. There is also one small glaze flake to the interior of its footrim. The other dish with a scholar has a 0.2 cm burst air bubble to the glaze at the foliage opposite to the eye of the donkey, with an associated stained body line of 0.6 cm visible on the back of the dish. Its rim has five areas of fritting, slightly stained, measuring approx. 0.2-0.8 cm.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Dishes of this type, with butterfly and leaf decoration on the rim and various freely drawn figure scenes in the centre, are believed to have been made for the Kangxi Emperor’s 60th birthday in 1713, and some of them are inscribed with reign marks, but the majority is not.

A similar dish of Kangxi mark and period in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated in Wang Qingzheng, ed., Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 92; another in R.P. Marchant, ‘Some Interesting Pieces of Marked Ch’ing Porcelain’, Bulletin of the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, no. 3, 1977-8, pls. 1-3.

A dish with a similar scene of ladies in a garden, pressing fabrics, also from the Laughlin and Chanler collections, was sold together with this pair in our London rooms, 30th June 1959, lot 84; and another dish with a scholar and boy on horseback was sold in our New York rooms, 7th December 1983, lot 362.