Lot 3123.  A ruby-ground famille-rose 'Floral' bowl, seal mark and period of Jiaqing (1796-1820); 9.2 cm., 3 5/8  in. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKD. Lot Sold 750,000  HKD. Photo: Sotheby's 2013.

with shallow rounded sides supported on a narrow footring, finely enamelled around the exterior with a lush variety of flower sprays clustered around the narrow footring or arching below the rim, including peony, hibiscus, lily, chrysanthemum, camellia, and aster, all reserved on a ruby-red ground of deep crushed raspberry tone, the interior and base reserved in white, the base further inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character seal mark.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29th October 1991, lot 285.

Note: A pair of bowls of this type was sold in these rooms, 20th November 1984, lot 412, one now in the Weishaupt collection, illustrated in Gunhild Avitabile, From the Dragon’s Treasure, London, 1987, pl. 26, and the other now in the Gruterich collection included in the exhibition Chinesische Keramik. Meisterwerke aus Privatsammlungen, Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst, Cologne, 1988, cat. no. 139; another pair was sold in these rooms, 30th April 1991, lot 110; and a single bowl was sold in our London rooms, 12th December 1989, lot 436.

For the prototype of the decoration, see a Yongzheng ruby-ground bowl in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, illustrated in Chugoku tōji zenshū [complete works on Chinese ceramics], vol. 21, Kyoto, 1981, pl. 105; a slightly smaller example with a Yongzheng yuzhi mark, in the British Museum, London, published in Hugh Moss, By Imperial Command, Hong Kong, 1976, pl. 5; and another offered in this sale, lot 3258.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 Oct 2013