Large Chinese Blue and White Long Eliza Dish, Kangxi (1662-1722)

Ref: W428

Large Chinese blue and white Long Eliza dish, Kangxi (1662-1722), painted in underglaze cobalt blue to the central roundel with a scene of two ladies in long flowing robes meeting in a blossom garden to admire a jardiniere of flowering peony; the wide foliate rim with eight lappet-shaped panels containing further vignettes of the ladies admiring floral displays all against an interlocking cell ground; the reverse with floral sprays and Kangxi mark within concentric circles.

Dimensions:

Diameter: 34cm. (13 3/8in.)

Condition:

Some fritting to the rim mostly on the underside

Notes:

‘Long Eliza’ is a term used to describe the tall women on Chinese export porcelain and comes from the Dutch ‘Lange Lijzen’. The motif is an interesting merging of Chinese and European influences, as the pair of women usually consists of a taller, normally understood to represent He Xiangu, and a shorter, representing Lan Caihe. Both figures are semi-historical Daoist Immortals; the former being a pure maiden who floats on clouds and consumes moonbeams, and the latter being a musician and benevolent patron whose attribute is a flower basket, to which the jardiniere on this plate possibly alludes. A similar plate can be found in the collection of the Rijksmuseum (AK-RBK-16289)

Provenance:

Provenance: Lieutenant General Sir Terence Sydney Airey KCMG, CB, CBE (1900 - 1983) and thence by family descent