Lot 1233. A rare teadust-glazed bracket-lobed 'Narcissus bowl', Yongzheng four-character impressed seal mark and of the period (1723-1735), 8 in. (20.2 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 40,000 - USD 60,000. Price realised USD 168,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

Finely potted after a Yuan-Ming-dynasty prototype, the vessel has shallow, rounded sides molded as six petals that rise to the everted bracket-lobed rim and is raised on three ruyi-shaped feet. The vessel is covered overall in an even, finely speckled olive-green, opaque glaze that thins to russet on the raised edges. 

Provenance: Samuel T. Peters (1854-1921) Collection.
Estate of Mrs. Samuel T. Peters (1859-1943); Parke Bernet Galleries, New York, 15 October 1943, lot 143.

Property from the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, New York. 

Exhibited: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, prior to 1943.

Note: Footed vessels of this type could be used for a number of purposes including as a washer, as a censer when filled with sand for the insertion of incense sticks, as bowls for growing narcissus bulbs, and as the stand for a flower pot of the same shape.

Vessels of this particular bracket-lobed shape with monochrome glazes were made during the Yongzheng period, reflecting the interest of the Yongzheng Emperor in the antique, as the shape is based on Yuan-Ming dynasty 'Numbered' Jun vessels of a related lobed shape, and all appear to have a monochrome glaze. Referencing the earlier Jun prototypes, the most-often seen monochrome glaze on these Yongzheng-marked vessels is of Jun-type, several of which have been published: one from the Qing Court Collection, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 37 - Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 196-7, no. 178, where it is described as a washer; one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Qingdai danseyou ciqi, Taipei, 1981, no. 84, where it is described as a pot stand; one illustrated by J. Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pp. 155, no. 262, where it is described as a flower pot stand and is illustrated across from its matching flower pot; and one in the Walters Collection illustrated by S. Bushell in Oriental Ceramic Art, 1981, p. 90, fig. 126.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 14 - 15 September 2017, New York