A RARE PAIR OF CANTON ENAMEL DISHES QING DYNASTY, YONGZHENG PERIOD |

each with shallow rounded sides resting on a short foot, the exterior enamelled ruby red and the base white, the interior decorated against a white ground with fruiting and flowering sprays, one with two pomegranates wreathed by multi-coloured floral blooms and dense foliage, the other with two finger citrons amongst floral buds and blooms borne on leafy stems

Collection of Mr and Mrs Alfred Clark (nos 28 and 28/4).
Christie's South Kensington, 20th June 2002, lot 373 and 375.

International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Art, London, 1935-1936, ser. nos 2596-2597, cat. no. 2190.
The Arts of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Oriental Ceramic Society at the Arts Council Gallery, London, 1964, cat. no. 336.

Frank Davis, 'The Enchantment of Painted Canton Enamels. Or Chinese Art in a Lighter Vein,' The Connoisseur, June 1957.
Soame Jenyns and William Watson, Chinese Art II, rev. Fribourg, 1980, no. 108 (only left dish illustrated).

These rare and vibrantly painted dishes formed part of a group of four from the esteemed collection of Mr and Mrs Alfred Clark. The other two dishes are painted with three pomegranates amongst sprays of peonies and daisies, and plums amongst floral sprays, and were also included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1935, cat. no. 2193, and sold at Christie’s South Kensington, 20th June 2002, lots 372 and 374 respectively. This group combines quintessentially Chinese subjects with a European technique. The fusion of East with West continues in the style of painting, where the Chinese tradition of outlining has been combined with the European pursuit of naturalism through shading. Compare another pair of dishes of this type, one painted with various flower sprays and the other with lychee and flowers, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, included in the Museum’s exhibition Chinese Painted Enamel, Oxford, 1978, cat. no. 41, where it is noted that they were probably made for the Palace (p. 40).

Wares that combine a finely-enamelled auspicious motif on the interior and a vibrant pink-ground exterior, which was also produced in porcelain, celebrate the newly developed famille-rose palette of the early eighteenth century. Painting in enamels on a metal body is essentially a Western technique that gained prominence in Europe during the Renaissance and was first introduced to Guangzhou by Jesuit missionaries who entered the port with samples of Limoges wares from Europe. The technique was then presented to the Palace Workshop around 1714-1716 by the enamel factories in Guangzhou, who supplied versatile artisans dedicated to developing and improving the standard of the imperial Enamel Workshop (see Yang Boda in the catalogue to the exhibition Tributes from Guangzhou to the Qing Court, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 63).