A fine famille-rose 'butterfly and flowers' dish, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng period

Collection of James Albert Garland (1840-1902).

Collection of John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913).

Duveen Brothers, Paris, 18th March 1918. 

William Dickinson & Son, London.

Collection of W. J. Holt.

Christie's London, 15th-16th May 1946, lot 183.

Collection of Henrietta Duits.

Christie's London, 29th June 1964, lot 163.

John Sparks Ltd., London.

Sotheby’s London, 5th November 1991, lot 73.

Van Ouwerkerk Collection.

Christie’s London, 8th November 2005, lot 103.

Marchant, London, 2006.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1893–1913 (on loan).

Exhibition of Chinese Applied Art, City of Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, 1913, cat. no. 148 (probably).

Recent Acquisitions, Marchant, London, 2006, pl. 50.

Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, 2006-2025 (on loan).

John Getz, Hand-book of a collection of Chinese porcelains loaned by James A. Garland, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1895, pp 43-44.

Stephen W. Bushell and William M. Laffan, Catalogue of the Morgan Collection of Chinese Porcelains, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1907, cat. no. 1092.

George Williamson, The Book of Famille Rose, London, 1927, pl. XXXIII.

R. L. Hobson, Bernard Rackham and William King, Chinese Ceramics in Private Collections, London, 1931, p. 154, fig. 277.

The present dish is particularly notable for its long and storied provenance. The dish appears to be first recorded in the illustrious collection of James Albert Garland (1840–1900), a prominent financier and patron of the arts, whose collection of Chinese porcelain, jades and tapestries was among the most esteemed in Gilded Age America. Garland, who founded the First National Bank of New York (now part of CitiBank) in 1873, was a client of the celebrated international dealers, the Duveen Brothers, and began collecting Chinese art with them in 1881. Within a few short years, he had amassed a collection of roughly two thousand pieces which he lent – including the present dish – to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 1893.

After Garland’s passing in 1900, the decision was made by his inheritors to sell the collection back (for a reported sum of almost $600,000) to the Duveen Brothers, who, in turn, sold the collection on to the dish’s next custodian, John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913). Aside from rising to be 'America’s Greatest Banker' and one of the most influential financiers in American history, J. P. Morgan was an ardent cross-category collector with an interest in books, gems and fine arts, including Chinese art. A founding member – and later president – of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Morgan spent his later years amassing an enormous collection, which he loaned almost in full to the Museum until his death in 1913. This extraordinary loan, which covered the entire second floor of the Metropolitan’s new wing, also allowed the present dish to remain in New York, eternalized yet again in Bushell and Laffan’s seminal catalogue of Morgan’s Chinese holdings.

After his death in 1913, Morgan’s son John Jr. opted to bequeath much of the collection directly to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while many of the finest pieces – the present dish included – were sold to remain in private hands. By the 1930s, the dish had entered the collection of W. J. Holt, a leading London collector who purchased from the likes of Bluett & Sons and John Sparks Ltd. throughout his lifetime. That the present dish was chosen to be immortalized in Bernard Rackham’s series on Ceramics Private Collections and George Williamson’s seminal work on famille rose porcelain is demonstrative of its perceived importance even in this early period.

Although not illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, since its earliest sale records, the present dish is also reputed to have been included in the groundbreaking Exhibition of Chinese Applied Art at the City of Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester in 1913. Indeed, in their foundational study of Chinese art collectors, Roy Davids and Dominic Jellineck similarly note that several pieces from the W. J. Holt Collection were 'exhibited in Manchester in 1913'; see Provenance, London, 2011, p. 240. While not conclusively attributable to the present piece, an unillustrated dish in the exhibition (cat. no. 148) seems to fit the present description, described as a 'deep saucer of fine white egg-shell porcelain, decorated with spray of flowers and butterflies in famille rose colours. 8½ inches diameter.' This dish is recorded as one of thirty-four pieces lent by Mr. E. F. M. Susman, Esq – a city councilor and member of the exhibition committee. 

Richly painted with a vibrant scene of butterflies at work amidst bright flora, the present dish is a rare and fine example of its type, produced for an export market during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor (1722-1734). Contained within a rarely attested band of blue enamel adorned with gilt flowers, this dish typifies the vivacity and creativity of early eighteenth century export wares – among the earliest and most desirable of those ever produced in a famille rose palette. Compare a closely related dish from the Shieffer, Dreesmann and Martin-Hurst collections, exhibited in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1929, and sold in our Monte Carlo rooms, 27th May 1980, lot 1024; and another from the collection of K. R. Rizk, sold at Christie’s New York, 21st January 2016, lot 151.