Set of eight small dishes decorated with scenes from The Romance of the Western Chamber.

On the reverse, a Six-character Chenghua Mark.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION :

The scene depicted corresponds to Scene II, of Act II from the play The Romance of the Western Chamber. This celebrated Chinese drama was written by Wang Shifu (1250–1336) around 1300, and scenes from the play were frequently illustrated on Chinese porcelain from the late 17th and throughout the 18th century.

In this particular scene, the maidservant Hongniang plays a pivotal role as the instigator of the relationship between the scholar Zhang and Miss Cui Yingying. She devises a scheme to bring the two young lovers closer together. During the scene, she reassures the hesitant scholar and urges him to attend a banquet hosted by Madame Cui—Yingying’s mother— where he is to be the sole guest. The intention is to create a favourable opportunity for interaction between the lovers, away from the constraints imposed by the mother. The decoration varies from one dish to another, offering eight different interpretations of the same scene.

Special thanks to Rachel Ma and Tutuhaoyi.com for their ongoing research, which has been instrumental in the regular identification of Chinese iconography.

BIBLIOGRAPHY :

For an identical dish, see:

– Leaping the Dragon Gate, The Sir Michael Butler Collection, Teresa Canepa & Katharine Butler, 2021, p. 383, III.4.222a,b.

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