A LARGE BLUE AND WHITE ‘DAOIST IMMORTALS’ DISH, SHUNZHI PERIOD
Lot 154 - FAS1025

China, around 1650. The shallow dish decorated in inky shades of cobalt blue to depict a scene with the eight Daoist immortals gathering on a riverbank, while on the opposite bank Shoulao is seated beneath a pine tree next to a smoking censer and recumbent deer, all below misty clouds. The rim lined in a café-au-lait glaze.

The recessed base with an underglaze-blue four-character mark yu tang jia qi (‘beautiful vessel for the Jade Hall’) within a double circle.

Provenance: Property of a noted Swedish collection. Bukowskis, Stockholm, 11-13 June 2024, lot 1311, sold for SEK 218,750 or approx. EUR 19,500 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). Collection of Anthony Lovett, acquired from the above. Anthony Lovett is an avid collector of Chinese porcelains of the 17^th and 18^th century, specializing in famille verte and Kangxi wares. His interest in porcelain began when he acquired a few pieces of mandarin palette as decoration in his first London apartment. While collecting, he frequented the dealer and auction circuit from the 1980s onward and received support from experts such as Anthony Gray and Louise Guest, as well as Dr. Ivy Chan in identifying and contextualizing his pieces.
Condition: Excellent condition with expected minor wear and firing irregularities including dark spots, few tiny firing cracks, and little pitting, light surface scratches, a shallow chip to the exterior of the rim.

Weight: 2.1 kg
Dimensions: Diameter 35.8 cm

The Jade Hall, Yu Tang, also known as the Hanlin Academy, was an official body in Beijing open only to scholar-officials who received the jinshi (metropolitan) degree. The Hanlin Academy or ‘Office of the Forest of Brushes’ was founded in 738, and once it gained control over rescript writing, became the preeminent scholarly institution of the inner court. The Yu Tang Jia Qi mark occurs on porcelain from the Jiajing, Wanli, Tianqi, Chongzhen, Shunzhi, and Kangxi periods in differing calligraphic forms and means ‘Beautiful Vessel for the Jade Hall’. Porcelains with this mark are considered to be rare.

Two large dishes of similar proportions, also decorated with the 'Eight Daoist Immortals’, are illustrated by Michael Butler, Julia B. Curtis and Stephen Little in, Shunzhi Porcelain: Treasures from an Unknown Reign, 1644-1661, Alexandria, VA, 2002. The first, from the Butler Family Collection, is decorated in the wucai palette (p. 224, no. 75), and the second, from the Collection of Caromy Hoare, is decorated in underglaze blue (p. 225, no. 76). Both examples bear the same mark inscribed on this lot, which is noted by Sir Michael Butler to be a commendation or 'omen' mark that was popular in the Shunzhi period.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 16 March 2015, lot 3560
Price: USD 27,500 or approx. EUR 32,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A large blue and white 'immortals' dish, Shunzhi period, circa 1650
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form, decoration, manner of painting, and size (36 cm). Note the identical mark. It is possible that the present lot and this dish were once part of the same series and setting in the jade hall.