19.4 cm. (7⁵⁄₈ in.) diam.

With Yamanaka & Co., London, July 1936 (as recorded in the RHRP ledger).
The Reginald and Lena Palmer Collection, no. 422 (according to label and as recorded in the RHRP ledger).

Yamanaka & Co., Shina Chōsen ko bijutsu Tenkan (Grand Exhibition of Ancient Chinese and Corean Works of Art), Yamanaka Shōkai, Kyoto, 1934, cat. no. 284.
Yamanaka & Co., Nihon ko tōji Shina ko bijutsu tenran-ka (Grand Exhibition of Japanese Ancient Ceramics and Chinese Ancient Works of Art), Yamanaka Shōkai, Osaka, 1934, cat. no. 567.
The Oriental Ceramic Society, Exhibition of Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty 1644-1912, The Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1951, p. 10, cat. no. 65.
Bonhams, Reginald and Lena Palmer, Their Collection and The Oriental Ceramic Society, 1921-1970, London, 2021, pp. 56-59, no. 16.

Tokyo, Nihon Bijutsu Kyokai, Yamanaka & Co., Grand Exhibition of Ancient Chinese and Corean Works of Art, 25-29 May 1934.
Osaka, Ōsaka Bijutsu Kurabu, Yamanaka & Co., Grand Exhibition of Japanese Ancient Ceramics and Chinese Ancient Works of Art, 4-6 Dec 1934.
London, The Oriental Ceramic Society, Exhibition of Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty 1644-1912, 23 May – 21 July 1951 (with label).
London, Bonhams, Reginald and Lena Palmer, Their Collection and The Oriental Ceramic Society, 1921-1970: A Loan Exhibition, 25 October – 2 November 2021.

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Lot Essay

The four birds on this dish are Eurasian tree sparrows (Passer montanus), 樹麻雀. These are auspicious birds – symbolising happiness and the arrival of spring, and while they are less common on porcelains, sparrows, often shown with bamboo, have been a favoured subject for Chinese painters on silk and, later, paper since Song times. Bird and flower painting continued to flourish into the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, with sparrows and bamboo continuing to provide inspiration for Chinese artists on silk and paper to the end of the Qing and into the Republic period.
The admiration of the Yongzheng emperor for fine bird and flower painting on imperial porcelain can be seen from the range of bird and flower depictions on falangcai 琺瑯彩 vessels preserved in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei. Many examples were illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Special Exhibition of Ch’ing Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of the Imperial Ateliers 清宮中琺瑯彩瓷特展, Taipei, 1992 including a bowl (no. 25) and a small cup (no. 71), both decorated with sparrows.
The black back of this famille rose dish is extremely rare. A pair of black-backed Yongzheng-marked dishes of exactly the same size is in the Zhuyuetang 竹月堂 collection (illustrated in A Millennium of Monochromes from the Great Tang to the High Qing – The Baur and the Zhuyuetang Collections, Geneva, 2018, pp. 260-1, nos. 114 a & b; and in Shimmering Colours – Monochromes of the Yuan to Qing Periods – The Zhuyuetang Collection, Hong Kong, 2005, p. 236, no. 158). The Zhuyuetang dishes also have famille rose decoration on the interior, and six-character marks on the base in underglaze blue.