A fine and very rare lime-green ground 'Mallow Flower' bowl, Mark and period of Yongzheng. Photo: Sotheby's.

finely potted and moulded with eight-lobed sides rising from a short foot to a wide everted rim resembling a mallow-flower blossom, the overlapping petals divided by undulating edges issuing from a band of raised pointed sepals forming the calyx with corresponding recesses around the interior of the bowl, covered overall with a bright lime-green enamel, the base left white and inscribed in underglaze blue with an six-character reign mark within double circles; 21 cm., 8 1/4  in. Estimation 2,200,000 — 2,800,000 HKD - Lot. Vendu 7,480,000 HKD 

This bowl is notable for its large size and only one other of related dimensions appears to have been published, but covered in a yellow glaze, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 27th October 2003, lot 703. Bowls of this type, but of smaller size, include a green glazed example like the present lot, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, published in Rose Kerr, Chinese Ceramics. Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1986, pl. 92 (top); a white-glazed bowl in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Porcelains from the Qing dynasty imperial kilns in the Palace Museum], vol. 1, pt. II, Beijing, 2005, pl. 96; and a pair of lemon-yellow bowls, from the E.T. Hall collection, sold at Christie’s London, 7th June 2004, lot 277. 

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