A GROUP OF FIVE FAMILLE ROSE ‘WU SHUANG PU’ DISHES, TONGZHI MARK AND PERIOD
Lot 265 - HS0625

China. The dishes with shallow rounded sides rising from a tapered foot to a lobed rim lined in café-au-lait and gilt, and painted to the well with the seated figure of the infamous poet Li Bai (Li Qingliang) enclosed in a gilt and iron-red roundel. The poet is surrounded by various figures, two dishes decorated with Lady Xian and Li Bai, one with Chen Dong and Yang Shuzi, another with Liuhou Zhang Zifang and Dongfang Shuo, and further depicting Wen Chengxiang and Yue Erwang.

Each figure is accompanied by a short text about their achievements or life events. The exterior with three stylized bats in flight and the recessed base inscribed with an four-character iron-red mark Tongzhi nianzhi and of the period. (5)

Provenance: Austrian private collection.
Condition: Good condition with minor wear and firing irregularities including dark spots, some dishes with few short hairlines, few tiny chips to the upper rim, rubbing to gilt and iron-red, minuscule flaking to enamels.

Weight: 632.3 g (total)
Dimensions: Diameter 13.7-14 cm

Wu Shuang Pu ('Table of Peerless Heroes') by Jin Guliang is a book of woodcut prints, first printed in 1694, early on in the Qing dynasty. This book contains the biographies and imagined portraits of 40 notable heroes and heroines from the Han Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, all accompanied by a brief introduction and guided by a related poem in Yuefu style. The illustrations from the book were widely distributed and re-used, often as motifs on Chinese porcelain.

Li Bai (701-762) was one of the greatest and most important poets in Chinese history. Together with Du Fu, they became prominent figures during the Tang dynasty, also known as the ‘Golden Age of Chinese Poetry’. Around 1000 poems are attributed to him, their contents celebrating friendship, nature, and the joys of drinking.

Dongfang Shou is considered a Daoist immortal in Chinese mythology and the spirit of Venus who incarnated as a series of ancient ministers including Laozi. According to legend, Dongfang attempted to steal one of the famous 'peaches of longevity' from the orchard of Xi Wangmu, the Queen Mother of the West, whose palace was believed to be in the Kunlun Mountains. The peaches were believed to ripen only once in 3,000 years and to confer immortality on anyone who ate them.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s Paris, 9 November 2021, lot 128
Price: EUR 1,386 or approx. EUR 1,600 (for one) adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A famille rose 'Wu Shuang Pu' dish, mark and period of Tongzhi
Expert remark: Compare the closely related decoration, subject, and reign mark. Note the size (25 cm).