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Lot Essay
The Tihedian (Hall of Manifest Harmony) was one of the six palaces in the northwestern sector of the Forbidden City where the Empress Dowager Cixi lived during much of her tenure as Regent to her son, Emperor Tongzhi. Special porcelain pieces were designed and produced for several of these palaces during the Tongzhi to Guangxu periods under the supervision of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and these wares were usually marked with names of their palace designation; for example, another well-known palace hall mark on porcelain from this period is the Dayazhai mark.
Compare a yellow and blue-glazed jardinière of similar form, also with a Tihedian zhi seal mark, but slightly smaller (31.2 cm. diam.), illustrated in Gongyang yuci, Beijing, 2007, pp. 234-35, no. 57. For a rectangular jardinière with a related butterfly and shou-character design, dated to the Tongzhi period, see ibid., pp. 90-91.
Compare a yellow and blue-glazed jardinière of similar form, also with a Tihedian zhi seal mark, but slightly smaller (31.2 cm. diam.), illustrated in Gongyang yuci, Beijing, 2007, pp. 234-35, no. 57. For a rectangular jardinière with a related butterfly and shou-character design, dated to the Tongzhi period, see ibid., pp. 90-91.