A famille verte charger, Qing dynasty, Kangxi (1662-1722).

The Avalon Collection.

This collection, which in the main focuses on the Interregnum and Kangxi periods has been both carefully and sensitively formed over the last twenty-five years. The collector, a member of the English Oriental Ceramic Society, has assembled the collection with an eye for provenance whilst purchasing from old European collections, well-established antique dealers and at auction.

Academically, the pieces have been well researched both in terms of their symbolism and narrative themes. In many instances the imagery on the pieces has been referenced to episodes in the romantic and historic novels of Chinese mythology, which were used extensively in the decoration of seventeenth century Chinese porcelain.

This dish belongs to a fairly large group of unusual dishes that have been given the name “Crane Medallion Dishes” by Christiaan J A Jorg. The group consists exclusively of dishes decorated in the famille verte palet – no variants in under glaze blue or Chinese Imari being known. Most of the dishes are decorated with scenes from literary sources based on woodblock prints but transformed into a circular composition to fit the centre of the dish. To date only 25 of these dishes have been traced to public and private collections in Europe – but not all have been published. Of this small group, only two of the dishes have the same decoration. A more detailed narrative of the “Crane Medallion Dishes” can be found in “Famille Verte: Chinese Porcelain in Green Enamels” by Christiaan J A Jorg, Pages 114 – 117.