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THE T.Y. CHAO 'CHRYSANTHEMUM' DISHES
Lot 20
A SUPERB AND UNIQUE PAIR OF FAMILLE-ROSE 'CHRYSANTHEMUM' DISHES Yongzheng six-character marks and of the period
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15 September 2025, 09:00 EDT
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A SUPERB AND UNIQUE PAIR OF FAMILLE-ROSE 'CHRYSANTHEMUM' DISHES
Yongzheng six-character marks and of the period
The sides each molded with twenty-four chrysanthemum petals forming the border and supported on a low foot ring, the dish interiors painted to the circular flat centers with branches of flowering chrysanthemum with stems in shades of grey-green and yellow-brown enamels with black highlights and leaves in two shades of green with further black highlights, the blooms painted in pale shades of pink, green, yellow, white and blue enamels, the reverse sides unadorned save for the double-encircled underglaze-blue six-character marks to the base centers.
6 3/16in (15.8cm) diam;
4in (10.2cm) diam of foot
(2, fitted box).
The sides each molded with twenty-four chrysanthemum petals forming the border and supported on a low foot ring, the dish interiors painted to the circular flat centers with branches of flowering chrysanthemum with stems in shades of grey-green and yellow-brown enamels with black highlights and leaves in two shades of green with further black highlights, the blooms painted in pale shades of pink, green, yellow, white and blue enamels, the reverse sides unadorned save for the double-encircled underglaze-blue six-character marks to the base centers.
6 3/16in (15.8cm) diam;
4in (10.2cm) diam of foot
(2, fitted box).
Footnotes
清雍正 《大清雍正年製》雙圈楷書款 粉彩團菊紋菊瓣盤一對
Provenance:
Collection of T. Y. Chao (1912-1999), Hong Kong
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19 May 1987, lot 313
Shimentang Collection
Eskenazi Ltd., London, 2012
Exhibited:
Ch'ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, the Art Gallery, Institute of Chinese Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, November 1973 to February 1974
Ch'ing Polychrome Porcelain, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 5 Feburary to 6 March 1977
Catalogue of an exhibition of one hundred selected pieces of Chingtechen porcelain of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties: from the collection of the T. Y. Chao Family Foundation, Hong Kong Museum of Art, January/March 1978
Qing Porcelain from a Private Collection, Eskenazi Ltd., London, 1-23 November 2012
Published:
James C.Y. Watt, Ch'ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1974, cat. no. 105
Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, Ch'ing Polychrome Porcelain, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1977, cat. no. 71
Catalogue of an Exhibition of One Hundred Selected Pieces of Chingtechen Porcelain of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties: From the Collection of the T. Y. Chao Family Foundation, January/March 1978, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1978, cat. No. 92
Qing Porcelain from a Private Collection, Eskenazi Ltd., London, 2012, cat. no. 5, pp. 34-37, and frontispiece
來源：
香港趙從衍（1912-1999）舊藏
香港蘇富比，1987 年 5 月 19 日，拍品編號 313
石門堂舊藏
倫敦埃斯卡納齊，2012 年
展覽：
《華光艸堂珍藏清代瓷器》，香港中文大學中國文化硏究所文物館，香港，1973 年 11 月至 1974 年 2 月
《清代彩瓷》，香港大學馮平山博物館，香港，1977 年 2 月 5 日至 3 月 6 日
《趙從衍家族基金會藏明清宮廷瓷器》，香港藝術館，香港，1978 年 1 / 3 月
《私人珍藏清代瓷器》，埃斯卡納齊，倫敦，2012 年 11 月 1-23 日
出版：
屈志仁，《華光艸堂珍藏清代瓷器》， 香港中文大學中國文化硏究所文物館，香港，1974 年，圖版編號 105
香港東方陶瓷協會，《清代彩瓷》，香港大學馮平山博物館，香港，1977 年，圖版編號 71
《趙從衍家族基金會藏明清宮廷瓷器》，香港藝術館，香港，1978 年 1 / 3 月，圖版編號 92
埃斯卡納齊，《私人珍藏清代瓷器》，倫敦，2012 年，圖版編號 5，頁 34-37 及圖錄前頁
While the form and decoration of our dishes appears to be unique, a variety of chrysanthemum petal-molded dishes are recorded. They fall into four main categories: (A) A type that is molded with twenty-four chrysanthemum petals that rise from a plain flat circular center, that in an initial kiln firing presents an unadorned white glazed dish with a reign mark, most usually that of the Yongzheng emperor, painted in underglaze cobalt blue to the base. Then flowers in enamel colors, the so-called falangcai enamels, are painted to the center and the ceramic is fired a second time. This decoration, always floral in nature, is painted solely to the flat central interior panel, and follows the circular contours of the panel.
The other three categories of dish that utilize molded chrysanthemum petals centered by a flat central circular panel include: (B) Dishes with a solid-ground monochrome enamel to the interior and exterior, with a reign mark to the base, most often Yongzheng, but including examples with Kangxi and Qianlong marks but with no other decoration. Individual colors include yellow, lime-green, pea-green, turquoise, ruby, brown, pink, persimmon, white and blue to list a few. The majority have forty-four chrysanthemum petals molded to the rising sides emanating from the plain circular center. Occasionally, the number of petals is reduced to twenty-four. Nearly all appear to be of the same size of approximately 7 inches (17.5cm) diameter (For a Kangxi-marked example with a lemon-yellow glaze and twenty-four petals, see Christie's London, 5 April 1976, lot 182; for an emerald-green example with forty-four petals and a Yongzheng mark, see Laure Schwartz-Arenales (Ed.), Mille Ans De Monochromes, Vaisselle sacree et profane des empereurs de Chine (A Millennium Of Monochromes, From the Great Tang to the High Qing), The Baur and the Zhuyuetang Collections, Geneva, 2018, pp. 322-323, no. 160; a yellow-glazed Yongzheng-marked dish with twenty-four petal border, ibid., pp. 342-342, no. 174; and a forty-four petal yellow-glazed Qianlong-marked example sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 18-19 May 1982, lot 304); (C) Dishes that have the molded petal borders that are monochrome enameled to both sides but with the interior central panel painted with floral-subject falangcai enamels (see Christie's London, 14 July 1980, lot 246 for a twenty-four petal lime-green-glazed dish with peony flowers in the center; and another larger dish with a yellow-glazed eight-lotus-petal molded border, painted with very similar falangcai enamels to our pair, and with the use of two-tone green enameled leaves using an un-serrated rounded leaf rather than the pointy, wispy, serrated type is illustrated in Masterpieces of Chinese Ceramics from the Baur Collection, Geneva, Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Japan, 1994, no. 68); and (D) Dishes of a slightly larger size that have a central circular panel with falangcai enamel chrysanthemum flower groups, but differing from the other three types, (A), (B), and (C), in that the molded chrysanthemum petals are only to be found in the well (or cavetto) of the dish and do not extend to form a foliate rim but instead are finished with an undecorated flat, everted circular rim. The central falangcai enameling of the chrysanthemums and leafy stems on this particular group of dishes bears the closest comparison with the T.Y. Chao pair offered here (see Illustrated Catalogue of Ch'ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, 1985, pl. 98; and another sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 24-25 November 1981, lot 286, that unusually bears a two-character qing feng [cool breeze] mark [not illustrated and not identified as either an underglaze or overglaze mark] rather than a Yongzheng six-character mark. Others sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 15 November 1988, The Paul and Helen Bernat Collection, lot 47 and later sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 30 April – 2 May 1995, lot 671; and another is illustrated in Mayuyama, Seventy Years, Volume One, Tokyo, 1976, p. 355, pl. 1064). Most importantly, this type is nearly always painted with chrysanthemum floral sprays to the central panel and always with the use of two-tone green enameled leaves using the un-serrated rounded leaf (that relate directly with our pair) rather than the pointy wispy serrated leaves found on types, (A), (B), and (C).
Of the four groups listed above, our pair falls into the first group (A), a type that appears in two sizes; a larger 9-inch diameter (23cm) dish and, like ours, a smaller size that varies approximately between 6 1/8 inches – 6 1/2 inches diameter (15.5cm - 16.5cm). These are painted with various floral compositions, sometimes with peony or chrysanthemum only, sometimes with just one larger full-faced flower and a second half-open flower of smaller size, sometimes with the larger flower rising in a clockwise direction but more often in an anticlockwise direction. These main flowers are usually painted in a variety of mixed colors (see Sotheby's Hong Kong, 20-21 May 1980, lot 227 and previously illustrated by Hugh Moss, By Imperial Command, Hong Kong, 1976, pl. 64) and more rarely painted in pink enamel only (see Christie's Hong Kong, 27 April 1993, lot 207 and later offered in the same rooms from the Yuen Family Collections, 30 April 2000, lot 586).
Other versions depict five or more flowerheads of either peony or chrysanthemum and sometimes peony with magnolia and daises and all use two-tones of green enamel for the leaf decoration that borders the design (see Christie's Hong Kong, 27 April 1993, The Imperial Sale, lot 60 and later offered in the same rooms, 30 November 2016, lot 3219; and another pair at Christie's Hong Kong, 27 May 2008, The Imperial Sale, lot 1546 from a distinguished Private Collection and offered again in the same rooms, 30 November 2020, lot 3004). Most types depict serrated pointy leaves, and a smaller group (to which our pair belongs) are always painted with chrysanthemums and importantly depict un-serrated and rounded leaves, rather than pointy, wispy serrated leaves.
The pair of magnificent and unique T.Y. Chao chrysanthemum dishes offered here belong to a select group of porcelains made during the Yongzheng period (1723-1735). The records of the Palace Workshops (Zaobanchu) indicate that in 1733 the Yongzheng Emperor commissioned Nian Xiyao, Assistant Supervisor of the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, to produce chrysanthemum dishes in twelve batches of forty dishes, with each batch a different monochrome color [type (B) above]. While no complete set of twelve dishes have survived in the Palace Collection, many monochrome chrysanthemum dishes of the Yongzheng period are recorded. The color range also exceeds the twelve colors recorded for 1733 and at least eighteen colors are known (The Palace Museum, Beijing, has published at least thirteen different colors).
For a lengthy discussion of the development of chrysanthemum-shaped porcelain wares in the Yongzheng period, see an article in Arts of Asia, May-June 2015, pp. 72-85 by Hajni Elias entitled 'In the path of Tao Qian: Chrysanthemum wares of the Yongzheng emperor'. The motif was a favored one and the inspiration for many vessel shapes and decorations during the Qing period. Its origins can in fact be traced back to Song dynasty petal-form vessels in lacquer, metalwork and ceramic (see a lacquer chrysanthemum dish, attributed to the Song dynasty and included in the exhibition The Monochrome Principle. Lacquerware and Ceramics of the Song and Qing Dynasties, Museum für Lackkunst, Münster, 2008, no. 13, together with a molded Ding chrysanthemum dish, no. 14).
For a full discussion of the chrysanthemum, juhua, as a subject, see Therese Tse Bartholemew, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 2006, p. 175, 7.11, where its importance as a flower in Chinese symbolism is noted, representing as it does autumn and longevity because of its hardiness; it blooms when most flowers wither under the onslaught of frost and icy winds. It represents the ninth month and also autumn and has a long history of cultural consequence in China and are even mentioned in classical literature as early as the 11th-7th centuries BCE in the Shijing (The Book of Odes). They are regarded as one of the 'four gentlemen of flowers', along with the lotus, orchid and bamboo and are associated with longevity, in part, because the word for chrysanthemum, ju, sounds similar to the word jiu meaning 'a long time' and also because of its medicinal properties when the petals are used in infusions.
During the Han dynasty chrysanthemum wine was imbibed on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month to prolong life. As the 'hermit' among flowers it is closely associated with the famous eastern Jin scholar-official and poet Tao Yuanming (real name Tao Qian, 365-427 ACE) who wrote poetry in their honor. The first character of its name ju, is also a pun for 'dwell', ju. On retirement in Jiangxi province (in present-day Jiujiang), he led a rustic life and created a form of poetry, tianyuan shi (farmstead poetry), inspired partly by his chrysanthemum garden and also the surrounding natural landscape.
Saleroom notices
Please note, lot 20 will not be available for online bidding. You may bid via telephone, absentee, or in-person.
If you are interested in bidding on Lot 20, please contact Coco Li (Coco.Li@bonhams.com) or Katniss Xu (Katniss.Xu@bonhams.com), as a deposit may be required.
請注意，拍品20號不支持線上競標。您可以選擇電話委託、書面委託或親自到現場競標。
如果您有意競標此拍品，請聯絡 Coco Li（Coco.Li@bonhams.com） 或 Katniss Xu（Katniss.Xu@bonhams.com），該拍品或需繳納保證金。