Ref: W358
Archive item - not for sale
Chinese blue and white plate, Kangxi (1662-1722), decorated in underglaze cobalt blue with similar central scenes of two ladies collecting sprigs of prunus in a rocky garden with children, the cavetto with diaper pattern and five cartouches containing blossoming prunus, the reverse with a selection of the hundred antiques to the rim and apocryphal Chenghua mark within concentric circles to the base, diameter: 27.5cm. (10 13/16in.), condition: rim chips and three hairline cracks. The hundred antiques are ancient symbols comprising of the eight precious things, or babao (auspicious symbols of good fortune) the symbols of the Four Fine Arts (chess, calligraphy, music and painting), with other representations of scholarly objects, vessels and flowers. The examples present on these plates include the pearl, for the granting of wishes, the pair of books for scholarly learning, and the lingzhi, sacred Daoist fungus of immortality.
