A RARE BLUE AND WHITE AND COPPER-RED PEACH-SHAPED DISHKangxi Finely potted in the shape of a peach with gently curving sides and supported on a short foot, deftly painted in the interior with a scholar and attendant on a shore beside a pavilion surrounded by a dense thicket of pine and copper-red wutong trees, a fisherman on a sampan emerging from the right, all beneath prunus dotted with red and bamboo, a calligraphic inscription with seal at the top. 26cm (10 1/2in) wide. 清康熙 青花釉裏紅桃形碟 Provenance: John R. Berwald, London, circa 1991 來源：倫敦古董商 John R. Berwald，約1991年 The inscription on the plate reads: 倒影踈枝嵐翠， 滴穿雲覓浮槎。 淡庵。 Which may be translated as: The reflection of the branches and emerald green trees, Drops through the clouds to seek a floating raft. Dan An (The Unadorned Hut) The poem makes reference to the reflection of the trees on the river catching a raft. The shape of the dish is in the form of an auspicious peach, which together with a scene of a boatman on river, could be a reference to the story of Peach Blossom Spring (桃花源記), a fable written by Tao Yuanming (365-427). In the tale, a fisherman haphazardly sails up a stream before sailing into a forest entirely of blossoming peach trees. By chance, the fisherman discovers a passage into a secluded utopia, inhabited by people and animals who have not known war or suffering. The villagers treated the fisherman warmly but warned him not to tell others of their location. The fisherman, however, tried to mark his way to remember the path back. But when he tried to find this paradise again, he could not. The subject would be the theme for many painters in Chinese history, to describe an ethereal utopia where the people lead an ideal existence in harmony with nature, unaware of the outside world for centuries. The present lot appears to be very rare, however, the style of the rocks is in the 'Master of the Rocks' style, with hemp-fibre brush strokes, and is related to two circular blue and white dishes with copper-red and calligraphic inscriptions, Kangxi, illustrated in China Without Dragons: Rare Pieces from Oriental Ceramic Society Members , London, 2018, pp.240-241, no.145.