Ref: Y870
Archive item - not for sale
Chinese famille rose dish, Yongzheng (1723-35), with everted rim, decorated in the centre with two ladies, one holding a ruyi sceptre, and a boy holding a lotus blossom on a pavilion terrace with another boy collecting lotus flowers off the edge of the pavilion steps, all surrounded by a lake with mandarin ducks and lotus, with branches of flowering prunus and willow issuing from rockwork, all below clouds scrolls and a golden sun, the border with four alternating cartouches enclosing two crabs and a reed and shellfish, against branches of flowering peony and lotus on a diaper ground, diameter: 13 7/8in., 35.3cm; condition: piece out of rim and chips to rim, all restored to a high standard. 'The theme of beautiful women picking lotus flowers from a lake was popular with poets, playwrights and artists in Imperial China as an activity representing hedonistic pleasure at court.' [Sotheby's - Lot 91, Roy David's Collection] The theme was based upon the legendry story of King Fuchai of Wu (r. 495-473 BC) who became so enamoured with Xi Shi who collected lotus from the lake that he neglected his duties to the detriment of the kingdom. A dish depicting ladies picking lotus flowers is illustrated in Jorg, 'Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam', p. 159, pl. 174. SOLD
