A fine carved celadon-glazed bowl, Mark and period of Yongzheng. Photo: Sotheby's.

the deep rounded sides rising from a flared foot to an everted rim, finely carved with a band of six upright ruyilappets enclosing ruyi heads alternating with smaller 'fishtail' lappets and emerging from a band of petal panels around the foot, further incised with a band of key-fret below the rim, applied overall with a fine celadon glaze thinning on the carved decoration revealing the white body beneath and pooling to a richer blue-green hue at the recesses, the base similarly glazed and inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within double circles; 24 cm., 9 1/2  in. Estimation 2,000,000 - 3,000,000 HKD. Lot vendu: 2,440,000 HKD

Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 5th November 1977, lot 227.
Sotheby's New York, 28th November 1978, lot 197.
Hall Family Collection, inventory no. 392.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 2nd May 2000, lot 527. 

Litterature: Sotheby's Hong Kong Twenty Years, Hong Kong, 1993, no. 314.

This bowl, with its elegant carved band and covered overall in a beautiful celadon glaze, is amongst the finest Yongzheng mark and period vessels made in the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. It belongs to a special group of celadon-glazed bowls, all of similar form and size but with varying design bands positioned either at the foot or around the middle of the exterior, made on the order of the Qing court to cater to the emperor’s sophisticated taste and fondness for elegant monochrome wares. This bowl is particularly distinct from the other bowls of this group as it has been potted with a short flared foot rather than the typical straight or slightly tapering foot.    

A closely related bowl, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was included in the museum’s Memorial Exhibition The Charles B. Hoyt Collection, Boston, 1952, cat. no. 440; one was sold in these rooms, 20th May 1981, lot 819, its companion piece was also offered, lot 820; and another was sold at Christie’s Tokyo, 15th February, lot 1981.

Bowls of this type continued to be made in the Guangxu period; see one included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain of Late Ch’ing from the Kwan Collection, National Museum of History, Taipei, 1985, cat. no 149, and sold at Christie’s New York, 20th September 2002, lot 375; and a pair from the collection of Jorge Getulio Veiga, sold in our London rooms, 31st October 1989, lot 6.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. Hong Kong | 08 Oct 2013 -www.sothebys.com