Lot 360. A pair of doucai 'floral bouquet' bowls, Yongzheng six-character marks in underglaze-blue within double circles and of the period(1723-1735); 6 in. (15.3 cm.) diam. Estimate GBP 30,000 - GBP 50,000. Price realised GBP 158,500. © Christie’s Images Limited 2015.

Each bowl is delicately painted and enamelled in soft tones around the exterior with six bouquets of daisies in shades of blue, yellow and iron-red, divided by foliate arabesques emerging from the base and from below a blue and yellow ruyi band around the rim. The interior medallion is decorated with a central bouquet encircled by florettes and further arabesques, all within double-line borders. 

Provenance: From a private European collection, predominantly assembled in the 1970s and 1980s.

Note: A number of similarly decorated bowls have been sold at auction, including a pair from the Edward T. Chow collection, sold in Christies Hong Kong, 25 November 1980, lot 128. Compare also this doucaidecoration on larger vessels from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Wucai, Doucai: Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, 1999, pl. 224, a garlic-head globular vase, and pl. 225, a meiping. Also a very similar pair of bowls with this design and from the same period were sold in Christies Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3460.

A fine pair of doucai 'floral bouquet' bowls, Yongzheng six-character marks within double circles and of the period(1723-1735); 6 in. (15.2 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 1,200,000 - HKD 2,000,000. Sold for HKD 5,440,000 Christies Hong Kong, 28 May 2014, lot 3460. © Christie’s Images Limited 2014.

Each bowl is delicately painted and enamelled in soft tones around the exterior with six bouquets of daisies in shaded hues of blue, yellow and iron-red, divided by foliate arabesques emerging from the base and from below a blue and yellow ruyi band around the rim, the interior medallion decorated with a central bouquet encircled by florettes and further arabesques, all within double-line borders, box (2).

Provenance: Acquired from S Marchant and Son, London, circa early 1980s

CHRISTIE'S. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS & WORKS OF ART, 10 November 2015, London, King Street