A CHINESE QIANLONG DOUCAI FLOWER AND BIRD DISH

Dimensions: Height 3,5 cm Wide 16 cm Depth 16 cm
Weight: 211 grams

A shallow porcelain dish with a gently rounded well and an undecorated pale rim, the centre painted with a bird perched beside flowering branches. Delicate blue outlines are combined with touches of green, yellow and iron-red, creating a lively but carefully contained composition. The blossom and foliage spread diagonally across the circular field, while the bird anchors the design with its contrasting blue and green plumage.

The combination of underglaze-blue drawing and coloured overglaze enamels is associated with the Chinese doucai decorative vocabulary. Bird-and-flower subjects offered porcelain painters a particularly effective way to balance natural observation with auspicious and seasonal associations.