Lot 42. A rare coral-ground famille-verte bowl, Yongzheng four-character yuzhi  mark and period; 12cm., 4 3/4 in. Estimate  40,000 — 50,000 GBP. Lot sold 93,750 GBP . Photo Sotheby's.

the shallow curving sides rising from a slightly tapered foot to a flaring rim, painted to the exterior with three scrolling aubergine-coloured peonies, the centres of each in iron-red and yellow, each surrounded with green scrolled leaves on a deep coral-red ground, the interior and base glazed white.

Provenance: Collection of Robert Soame Jenyns.
Sotheby's London, 12th December 1989, lot 425.
Sotheby's London, 6th December 1994, lot 202.

Note: The palette employed on this bowl is characteristic of porcelain wares produced in the early Yongzheng period, which continue in the style pioneered by craftsmen of the Kangxi reign. Hugh Moss in By Imperial Command. An Introduction to Ch’ing Imperial Painted Enamels, Hong Kong, 1976, p. 82, suggests that bowls of this type were probably produced at Jingdezhen within the first two years of the Yongzheng reign, when potters were not yet familiar with the famille-rose palette, which was first employed at the Palace Workshops in Beijing.

A bowl of this design in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Museum’s exhibition Porcelain with Painted Enamels of Qing Yongzheng Period, Taipei, 2012, cat. no. 17; one in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, is illustrated inChugoku toji zenshu [Complete book of Chinese ceramics], vol. 21, Kyoto, 1981, pl. 105; two are illustrated in Hugh Moss, op. cit., pls 77 and 78, the first from the Maze Foundation, and the second, one of a pair, from the collection of Barry Dinan, previously sold at Christie’s London in 1974, and twice in our Hong Kong rooms, 22nd May 1979, lot 237, and 26th October 1993, lot 144; a pair from the British Rail Pension Fund was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 16th May 1989, lot 782, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1st/3rd May 1994, lot 738; and a further pair from the collection of John F. Woodthorpe, was sold in these rooms, 3rd May 1994, lot 215, and again in our Hong Kong rooms, 3rd May 1994, lot 215. Bowls of this design are also found with touches of famille-rose enamels, which would suggest a slightly later date; see one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition Porcelain with Painted Enamels of Qing Yongzheng, op. cit., cat. no. 16; and another from the Grandidier bequest in the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated in Hugh Moss, op. cit., pl. 79; where the author suggests it was produced between 1722 and 1728.

Bowls painted in famille-verte enamels with peonies over a coral ground are also known with yellow flower heads, such as two in the National Palace Museum, included op. cit., cat. nos. 18 and 19; and another from the collection of E. Cohen, sold in these rooms, 2nd/3rd December 1974, lot 484.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, London, 11 november 2015, 11:00 AM