For decades, a large, dirt-covered porcelain dish lay beneath a sofa in a north London home, its significance unknown to the family who kept it. Now identified as a rare example of Chinese imperial porcelain associated with the court of Empress Dowager Cixi, the dish is expected to sell for £20,000 to £30,000 at auction. The 2ft-wide piece, which weighs about 30lb, was brought to Britain in the early 20th century by Chinese immigrant Wing Lung Goo and passed down through his family. Asian art specialist John Axford of Salisbury auction house Woolley & Wallis identified a four-character seal mark on its base linking it to Chuxiu Palace in Beijing’s Forbidden City. Decorated in imperial yellow with green and aubergine enamels, the dish is scheduled to be offered for sale on 10 November 2026. Asian art specialist John Axford identified the four-character seal mark on its base, which links the dish to Chuxiu Palace in Beijing’s Forbidden City. Comparable dishes bearing the same mark provide further context for understanding the piece and its place within late Qing imperial porcelain.
Qing dynasty dish found under a sofa in Barnet: how the Goo family’s porcelain reached Woolley & Wallis
The discovery began when a relative of the family contacted Woolley & Wallis and sent photographs of the dish. It had spent decades beneath the living-room sofa in a Barnet townhouse, where it accumulated dirt. Axford, the auction house’s Asian art specialist, decided that the object’s unusual size warranted an in-person inspection. Examining the dish revealed a seal mark on its underside that helped establish its significance. Axford said the family’s reason for storing the dish beneath the sofa was not known. He suggested that its size may have made it difficult to hang on a wall or display, although that explanation remains a possibility rather than an established account of the family’s decision. After it was cleaned, the porcelain emerged in what the auction house described as near-pristine condition.The discovery resembles other cases in which an ordinary-looking object has turned out to be more significant than its owners realised. In its article Charity Shop Finds, Woolley & Wallis recounts how a Chinese dish that was due to be priced at £2 in a Dorset charity shop was brought in for valuation and recognised by Axford. The Barnet dish, however, stands out for its monumental scale and its unusual base, which the auction house says is the only known example of this type to have a yellow glaze across the base as well.
Chuxiugong zhi seal mark explained: how experts linked the dish to Empress Dowager Cixi
The central clue is the four-character mark, Chuxiugong zhi, on the underside. It translates as “made for Chuxiu Palace”, also known as the Palace of Gathering Elegance. The palace was one of the six Western palaces in Beijing’s Forbidden City and was closely associated with Empress Dowager Cixi. According to Sotheby’s catalogue notes for a related yellow-ground dragon charger, Chuxiu Palace was Cixi’s chief residence between 1856 and 1885. She had it refurbished for her 50th birthday in 1884, with large decorative objects among the furnishings. Axford concluded that the Barnet dish was made in the 1880s to mark Cixi’s birthday. That dating places it in the late Qing dynasty, during the Guangxu period, which ran from 1875 to 1908. The seal is significant because it associates the object with a specific imperial palace rather than identifying it merely as Chinese porcelain. Its decoration provides further points of comparison with known palace wares.A related dish offered by Woolley & Wallis in 2023, documented in lot 40 of its Fine Asian Art sale, measures 32cm across. It features two scaly dragons contesting a flaming pearl amid clouds, with four dragons on the underside. Its recorded provenance includes Field Marshal Earl Kitchener and a 1938 Sotheby’s sale in London. Another comparison appears in Sotheby’s 2016 catalogue for a large yellow-ground dragon charger. That piece bears the same four-character mark and features two leaping dragons contesting a flaming pearl, with green and aubergine enamels against a yellow ground. Sotheby’s traces the design to a Kangxi-period prototype in the National Palace Museum in Taipei. These parallels help specialists place the Barnet dish within a recognisable tradition of imperial porcelain, although each object has its own features and history.
Imperial Chinese porcelain at auction: what a £20,000 to £30,000 estimate says about the dish
The Barnet dish has several features that distinguish it from smaller examples. It measures about 61cm across and weighs approximately 30lb. Its decoration includes two confronting dragons contesting a flaming pearl, surrounded by clouds and flames. A floral border features lotus, prunus, peony, chrysanthemum and hibiscus, while further dragons and flaming pearls decorate the rim. The yellow ground, with green and aubergine enamel details, is characteristic of the group of imperial wares to which the dish has been linked. The base may be its most unusual feature. Woolley & Wallis has described the dish as the only known example of this type with a yellow-glazed base. The auction house says the combination of its scale, its association with Cixi’s court and the potentially unique base makes it a significant example of late Qing palace porcelain to appear on the market in recent years. The claim about the base is the auction house’s assessment of the known examples, rather than proof that no other example could exist.Previous auction results provide context for the estimate, although they are not direct price comparisons. The smaller 32cm Chuxiugong-marked dish offered by Woolley & Wallis in 2023 carried an estimate of £2,000 to £3,000 and sold for £8,820, including the buyer’s premium. Sotheby’s gave a large yellow-ground charger bearing the same mark an estimate of $60,000 to $80,000 in 2016. Its catalogue also records earlier sales of closely related dishes in Hong Kong and London. The Barnet dish is substantially larger than the 32cm example, and its yellow-glazed base is an additional point of distinction. Those characteristics help explain why the auction house has assigned it a higher estimate, although the final price will depend on bidding on the day. The dish is scheduled to be offered by Woolley & Wallis on 10 November 2026. For the Goo family, the object’s significance emerged only after a relative sought an expert opinion. Its journey from a family home to an auction catalogue illustrates how marks, decoration and comparisons with documented objects can change the understanding of a piece of porcelain that has remained in private hands for generations.
