the deep round hollow bowl with an incurved rim, painted in underglaze red with a row of pendent pomegranates extending from a band of cobalt-blue trefoils and key fret around the mouth, collared by a broad flat dish painted with four blossoming sprays, the underside with six florets on stylised foliage, all supported on a slightly flared foot skirted with overlapping arches, each enclosing a red trefoil motif, the inner foot inscribed with a six-character horizontal seal mark. 

Note: This elegant type of cupstand, which first appeared in the Yongzheng reign, gained popularity in the Qianlong period. The Nanjing Museum has a comparable example of Qianlong mark and period, as well as a blue and white example of the Yongzheng reign, both illustrated in Xu Huping, ed., Zhongguo Qingdai guanyao ciqi/ The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pp. 139 and 219. Another Qianlong underglaze-red and blue cupstand in the Tokyo National Museum, from the collection of Dr Yokogawa Tamisuke, is illustrated in Tōkyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan zuhan mokuroku: Chūgoku tōji hen/ Illustrated Catalogues of Tokyo National Museum: Chinese Ceramics, Tokyo, 1988-1990, vol. II, no. 566. For a rare Yongzheng prototype with underglaze-red and blue decoration, see one formerly in the collection of Dr Carl Kempe and later in the Meiyintang collection, sold in these rooms, 4th April 2012, lot 47.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art from the Collection of Sir Quo-Wei Lee II, Hong Kong, 08 October 2019