Lot 3603. A fine famille-rose 'Lotus' Bowl, seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795). Estimate 800,000 — 1,000,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.

exquisitely enamelled on the exterior of the deep rounded sides with two registers of upright lotus petals radiating from the speckled green band encircling the short foot, all below a thin yellow-ground frieze detailed with pink stamens bordering the gilt rim, the footring similarly gilt, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character seal mark; 14.8 cm, 5 7/8  in.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 31st October 1995, lot 524.

Notes: This finely enamelled bowl belongs to a group of porcelain wares made in the form of a lotus blossom, after a metal-body prototype created during the Kangxi period. See for example a painted enamel bowl and cover with Kangxi yuzhi mark, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s Special Exhibition of Enamelled Painted Wares of the Ch’ing Dynasty, Taipei, 1979, lot 128; and another bowl, also with its matching stand, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published inCompendium of Collections in the Palace Museum, Enamels, vol. 5, Painted Enamels in the Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2011, pl. 25. 

A closely related bowl was sold at Christie’s New York, 23rd March 1995, lot 400; and a slightly smaller version with cover, in the Wang Xing Lou Collection, is illustrated in Imperial Perfection. The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors, Hong Kong, 2004, pl. 59, possibly the same bowl that was sold in these rooms, 16th November 1988, lot 386. See also a pair of dishes of this design, and with Qianlong mark and of the period, sold in these rooms, 29th November 1978, lot 309. 

Bowls of this type continued to be produced in the later Qing dynasty; a pair of bowls with Daoguang marks and of the period, is illustrated in Wang Qingzheng, Selected Ceramics from the Collection of Mr and Mrs J.M. Hu, Shanghai, 1989, pl. 93; and a Guangxu example, from the Yangzhitang Collection, included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain of Late Qing from the Kwan Collection, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1983, cat. no. 138, was sold at Christie’s Singapore 30th March 1997, lot 283, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30th May 2006, lot 1457 (right. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2006).

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 05 oct. 2016, 02:30 PM