Lot 16. A finely enameled doucai 'medallion' conical bowl, Yongzheng mark and period (1723-1735). Diameter 8 3/4  in., 22.6 cm.  Estimate 50,000 — 70,000 USD. Lot sold 287,500 USD. Photo: Sotheby's

well potted, the flared sides rising from a short straight foot to a slightly everted rim, delicately enameled in soft pastel tones with four floral medallions to the exterior, each enclosing lotus, peony, prunus and chrysanthemum divided by stylized foliage scroll, the interior centered with two butterflies within an underglaze blue double-circle, repeated at the rim and foot, the base with a six-character mark in underglaze blue 

Provenance: English Private Collection, until 2008.
European Private Collection. 

Note; The four flowers blossoming in the enameled medallions—peony, lotus, chrysanthemum, and prunus—represent the four seasons. This trope, also known as the 'Four Gentlemen', emerged during the Song dynasty (960-1279) and continued as a popular decorative motif through the Qing dynasty. The simultaneous efflorescence of plants that normally bloom at different times of the year symbolizes the health of the universal order and the flourishing of all things within it. 

A closely related bowl, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, is illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 31; another in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, is published in Sekai toji zenshu, vol. 12, Tokyo, 1956, pl. 64 (bottom);  a third, in the Meiyingtang collection, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. IV, pt. II, pl. 1747; and an additional example, in the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, University of Durham, is illustrated in Ireneus Laszlo Legeza, A Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Malcom Macdonald Collection of Chinese Art, London, 1972, pl. CXXXIX. Further similar examples include a bowl from the collection of Paul and Helen Bernat, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 15th November 1988, lot 10; and another sold in our London rooms, 9th November 2005, lot 301.