Porcelain plate

Famille rose
China
Qing Dynasty, 18th-19th century
Diameter 42.5 cm

Large octagonal plate depicting three beauties. Two of the ladies are standing in front of a bridge leading to a house where the third is sitting. Behind it a suggested landscape with plants and mountains. At the rim alternating four heart-shaped medallions with gourds in a floral frame and rectangular medallions with plant arrangements in geometric décor. The depiction in the centre is reminiscent of the Famille Rose porcelains of the Yongzheng period (1723-35), the early period of this colour palette, but the design of the rim identifies the piece as a product of the second half of the Qing dynasty. Both the suggested mountain landscape in the background and the gourds are borrowed from the Daoist symbolism.