Lot 601. A rare 'Ru-tupe' narcissus bowl, Yongzheng mark and period (1736-1795); 21.5cm, 8 1/2 in. Estimate 7,000 — 9,000 GBP. Lot sold 22,500 GBP. Photo Sotheby's 2008

the octagonally lobed body with rounded sides rising from a slightly concave base to an everted rim, all supported on three short cabriole legs and covered overall in a pale bluish-grey glaze. 

Exhibited: Ju and Kuan Wares, Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1952, cat. no. 110. 

Literature: Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 8, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 274.

Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, pl. 201.

Chinese Ceramic Treasures, a Selection from the Ulricehamn East Asian Museum, Including The Carl Kempe Collection. The Museum of Art and Far Eastern Antiquities in Ulricehamn, Ulricehamn, 2002, pl. 420.

Note: It is extremely rare to find Yongzheng narcissus bowls of this elegant mallow-form although the type is well known from later, Qianlong period, examples. For example see a Qianlong mark and period tripod vessel of this form with a crackled glaze, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 24th May 1978, lot 210, and illustrated in Sotheby's Hong Kong – Twenty years, 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 326; and another from the collections of J. M. Hu and Robert Chang, sold in our New York rooms, 4th June 1985, lot 65, and again at Christie's Hong Kong, 2nd November 1999, lot 517.

Vessels of this type were made after Song prototypes; see a Song vessel of similar shape but without the tripod feet published in the Illustrated Catalogue of Sung Dynasty Porcelain in the National Palace Museum. Southern Sung Kuan Ware, Taipei, 1974, cat. no. 54. Both the Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors had keen interest in the revival of antiquities, hence Song period shapes and glazes were imitated and wares were commissioned to be made in the Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen. A bulb bowl, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, illustrated in W. B. Honey, The Ceramic Art of China and Other Countries, London, 1945, pl. 43B, was possibly made in the attempt to pass off as a Song period original as the mark on the base had been ground off the bowl.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, London, 05 Nov 08.