Lot 517. A copper-red 'Three fish' bowl, Yongzheng mark and period (1723-1735). Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 USD. Lot sold 40,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

delicately-potted with deep curved sides rising from a straight foot to a flared rim, the exterior boldly decorated with three mandarin fish in rich copper-red silhouettes, all reserved on a white ground, the interior left undecorated, the base with a six-character mark within a double circle in underglaze blue. Diameter 4 3/4  in., 12.2 cm

Exhibited: A Walk into China’s Past, Art Center of Battle Creek, Michigan, 1976, cat. no. 80. 

Note: Designs in the form of underglaze red silhouettes of animals and fish originated in the Yongle period (1403-24), when they were generally combined with underglaze blue decoration. On early Ming vessels the red fish are, however, mainly seen on stemcups and stembowls. 

After the Xuande period this style of decoration was rarely used until revived in the Qing dynasty. Yongzheng mark and period bowls of this form and design are held in museums and private collections worldwide; see one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition Ming Chenghua ciqi tezhan [Special exhibition of Ming Chenghua porcelain], Taipei, 1977, cat. no. 100; one in the Nanjing Museum, included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 49; another in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, published in Rose Kerr, Chinese Ceramics. Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1998, pl. 11; and a fourth from the Meiyintang collection, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 9th October 2012, lot 50. Another similar bowl sold in our London rooms, 5th November 2014, lot 8.

A Fine Underglaze-Red 'Fish' Bowl, Mark and Period of Yongzheng from the Meiyintang collection. Sold 149,640 USD at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 9th October 2012, lot 50. Photo: Sotheby's.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art New York, 15 Mar 2017