Lot 3989. A very rare coral-ground enamelled bowl, Yongzheng four-character yuzhi mark within double-squares and of the period (1723-1735); 4 3/4 in. (12 cm.) diam. Estimate 1,500,000 - HKD 2,000,000. Price realised HKD 2,420,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2012.  

The bowl is thinly potted with shallow curving sides rising to a flaring rim, enamelled to the exterior with three scrolling blue peonies enamelled in yellow and red, surrounded by curly leaves picked out in green and yellow, with iron-red and black outlines reserved on a rich coral-red ground. The interior and base are covered in a transparent glaze, box.

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby's London, 6 April 1976, lot 169
Bluett and Sons, London, 25 November 1976
A European private collector.

Note: Yongzheng yuzhi bowls of this form and design were enamelled with either blue or yellow flowers on a coral-red ground.

Other almost identical examples with blue flowers include two illustrated by H. Moss, By Imperial Command: An Introduction to Ch'ing Imperial Painted Enamels (Plates), Hong Kong, 1976, pl. 77-78, from the Maze Foundation and Barry Dinan, together with a bowl with the addition of famille rose enamel, from the Musee Guimet, pl. 79; one from the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Chogoku Toji Zenshu, vol. 21, pl. 105; a pair in the Meiyintang Collection, illustrated by R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, Volume Four (II), London, 2010, p. 250, pl. 1725; and another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 2 May 1994, lot 738.

The famille rose palette emerged at the end of the Kangxi period (1662-1722) and developed further in the Yongzheng period, eventually phasing out the use of famille verte enamels. The present bowl would have been made early in the Yongzheng reign.

Bowls of similar form with yellow flowers include a pair in the Chang Foundation, illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1993, pl. 142; a single bowl included in the Min Chiu Society Silver Jubilee Exhibition, Anthology of Chinese Art, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1985, Catalogue, no. 178; one from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Painted Enamel of the Ch'ing Dynasty, Taipei, 1979, pl. 35; one sold at Christie's New York, 16 September 1999, lot 345; a pair sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 November 2005, lot 1347, and again on 1 June 2011, lot 3531.