Lot 3112. A pair of doucai 'lotus' bowls, Marks and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 10.2 cm., 4 in. Estimate 1,600,000 — 1,800,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,960,000 HKD (184,518 EUR). Photo Sotheby's

each body with deep rounded sides rising from a short straight foot to a slightly everted rim, finely painted and enamelled to the interior with a medallion enclosing leafy strapwork, the exterior with three leafy lotus panels divided by smaller pendent floral panels, the base with an underglaze blue six-character reign mark.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 31st October 1995, lot 505.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th October 2010, lot 2691.

Note: A closely related pair of doucai bowls was included in the exhibition Treasures of Imperial Porcelain. Official Kiln Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty collected by Hangzhou Tu Huo Zhai Museum of Antique Ceramics, Zhejiang Provincial Museum, Hangzhou, 2011, cat. no. 46; and another pair was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 25th October 1993, lot 843. Yongzheng bowls with this design painted in the wucai palette are also known; see one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, published in the Illustrated Catalogue of Ch’ing Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1980, pl. 94.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 april 2014