POWDER-BLUE DISH
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
26.5 cm diameter
The dish rises from a short tapering foot to gently rounded sides with flaring rim. The interior is painted in underglaze blue with a smiling monk wearing loose robes and large earrings. The figure is reserved against an even ground of underglaze powder-blue. The outer rim is left white. The exterior is freely painted in underglaze blue with two sprigs of bamboo, the base with a square seal within a double ring.
The present dish belongs to a rare group of powder-blue dishes probably produced during a very short period within the Kangxi reign. Only one other dish with this design in powder-blue and copper-red seems to be known, illustrated in Wang Qingzheng, Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Shanghai, 1998, pl.82.
Provenance:
Formerly in an important French private collection, acquired in the 1950s.