Lot 3015. A rare lobed doucai jardinière and stand, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong Period (1735-1796);  18.2 cm., 7 1/8  in. the stand 19.5 cm., 7 5/8  in. Estimate 1,200,000 — 1,800,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,600,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's

of mallow shape with deep lobed sides and a raised everted rim divided into eight foliations, supported on four feet of ruyi outline and a shallow matching stand of conforming section, each decorated on the exterior in underglaze blue and contrasting enamels with alternating yellow and iron-red petalled lotus blossoms wreathed in dense scrolling foliage, between a border of multi-coloured upright lappets around the base and a collar of pendent ruyi with gilt highlights at the shoulder, all below a blue, white and iron-red key-fret encircling the beaded rim, the latter picked out with floral sprays interspersed with lozenge motifs, edged with single fillets in iron red and blue, the interior and base glazed in pale turquoise; the jardinière.

Provenance: Sotheby’s London, 1st/2nd April 1974, lot 325.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 26th November 1980, lot 393. 

Note: A pair of jardinières and stands of this type was sold at Christie’s London, 16thNovember 1999, lot 249; and a famille rose and underglaze blue example is published in Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 345, pl. 26. Qianlong vessels of this type, with a bulb bowl and matching stand that are similarly decorated with ornate floral scroll patterns, are known in a variety of shapes and coloured grounds; see several examples from the Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pp 246-261.