Lot 2901. A fine and very rare celadon-glazed bowl, Yongzheng six-character mark within double circles and of the period (1723-1735); 6 3/4 in. (17.1 cm.) diam. Estimate HK$1,500,000 - HK$2,500,000 ($194,359 - $323,932). Price Realized HK$1,480,000 ($191,723). © Christie's Image Ltd 2014

The bowl is delicately potted with deep rounded sides rising from a straight foot to a slightly flaring rim. The exterior is evenly covered with a soft pale celadon glaze thinning to white on two encircling bow-string bands. The interior and underside of base are covered with a transparent glaze. 

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby's London, 12 June 1990, lot 298

Note: No other Yongzheng bowl of this form (probably in reference to metalwork examples) and glaze colour appears to have been published. Although shallower cafe-au-lait glazed examples bearing the same type of double-ring reign marks are known, such as the example in the Tokyo National Museum, included in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 15, Tokyo, 1983, p. 201, pl. 279, and another included in the exhibition, Chinese Antiquities from the Brian S. McElney Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1987, no. 100.

The inspiration for the present type of bowl likely stemmed from a Kangxi apple-green glazed prototype of smaller size, which shares the same proportion and the moulded double-band decoration, see a marked example in the Percival David Foundation, currently housed at the British Museum, illustrated by Rosemary Scott in Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Monochrome Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1989, p. 47, no. B515.