Lot 636. A fine and rare incised celadon-glazed 'floral' bowl, Yongzheng mark and period (1662-1722). Diameter 6 1/2  in., 16.5 cm. Estimate 50,000 — 70,000 USD. Lot Sold 93,750 USD. © Sotheby's. 

the steep sides gently flaring to a subtly everted rim, incised with six rounded stylized flowerheads borne on a scrolling vine issuing further buds and tender leaves, covered overall in a pale celadon glaze draining to white at the rim, the recessed base similarly glazed and inscribed with a six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 28th November 1978, lot 181.
Marchant, London.
Collection of Professor E. T. Hall (1924-2001), coll. no. 53.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 2nd May 2000, lot 541.
Marchant, London, June 2002.

Literature: Karen Thomson, ed., The Blema and H. Arnold Steinberg Collection, Montreal, 2015, pl. 147.

Note: During the Ming dynasty, the Jingdezhen kilns started producing celadon wares mimicking those from the Longquan kilns in Zhejiang province, a tradition which continued into the Qing. This reached new heights in the Yongzheng period, whereby the soothing blue-green glazes of the Song and Yuan periods were combined with the fine white body and technical perfection of the Jingdezhen kilns. Combining a luminous celadon glaze and a delicate incised motif of stylized flowers, this bowl was modeled on Yongle prototypes. A Yongle bowl of this design from the Qing Court Collection and still in Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 169. 

Yongzheng mark and period bowls of this type are unusual, and this motif is more commonly found on bowls made in succeeding reigns. See a Jiaqing mark and period version in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Special Exhibition of Ch'ing-Dynasty Monochrome Porcelains in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, cat. no. 97; and a slightly smaller Daoguang mark and period example sold in these rooms, 6th December 1978, lot 981 and again, 13th November 1990, lot 200.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 10 september 2019