A Fine Pair Of 'Doucai' 'Flower Medallion' Conical Bowls, Yongzheng Marks And Period

diameter 8 3/4 in., 22.2 cm. Estimate 120,000—150,000 USD

Property from the collection of Doctor and Madame Ho-Ching Yang

NOTE: These two bowls are especially attractive for their very fine and thin potting and elegant conical shape with slightly rounded sides. The decoration in the doucai enamels is especially vibrant and is delicately painted in a most naturalistic fashion. The medallions, painted with flowering plants of the four seasons, are typical of the most successful Yongzheng period designs, and these bowls represent the best quality wares produced under the Yongzheng emperor's tutelage when porcelain enameling reached a new level of excellence during the early 18th century. However, the design, referred to by Hugh Moss in By Imperial Command, Hong Kong, 1976, p. 74, as circular panel of decoration with the subject matter defined within its own limits, can be seen on earlier, Kangxi period yuzhi wares. This design was later incorporated into the Yongzheng repertoire at the Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province.

A similar Yongzheng mark and period bowl, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, is illustrated in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 31, and also in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 229. Another bowl of this design, in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, is published in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1956, pl. 64, bottom; and one in the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, University of Durham, is included in Ireneus Laszlo Legeza, Malcolm MacDonald Collection of Chinese Ceramics, London, 1972, pl. CXXXIX, no. 378. See further a bowl from the Ernst Ohlmer collection and in the Roemer Museum, Hildesheim, pencilled with the same design in underglaze-blue only, illustrated in Ulrich Wiesner, Chinesisches Porzellan, Mainz am Rhein, 1981, pl. 45, where Wiesner records a doucai example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Bowls of this type have also been sold at auction; for example see a bowl sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 2nd May 2005, lot 502; another, from the Paul and Helen Bernat collection, also sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 15th November 1988, lot 10; and one sold in our London rooms, 9th November 2005, lot 301.

Sotheby's. Chinese Works of Art. 17 Mar 09.New York www.sothebys.com Photo courtesy Sotheby's.