Lot 3127. A rare white relief-decorated bowl, Yongzheng six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1723-1735); 8 5/8 in. (22 cm.) diam. Estimate $200,000 – $300,000. Price realised $233,000 © Christie’s Image Ltd 2015

The bowl, with deep, rounded sides that flare towards the rim, is molded on the exterior with a band of leafy flower scroll bearing alternately ascending and descending blossoms, and is covered overall with a translucent glaze of very faint bluish tone. 

Provenance: Ira and Nancy Koger Collection; Sotheby's New York, 27 November 1990, lot 33.

Note: Yongzheng-marked bowls of this shape with the same flower scroll relief decoration appear to be quite rare. A celadon-glazed example, also from the collection of Ira and Nancy Koger, was sold at Christie's New York, 19 September 2007, lot 369. (Fig. 1) The same flower scroll decoration can also be seen painted in underglaze blue, rather than molded, on a Yongzheng-marked bowl of somewhat different shape sold at Christie's London, 15 June 1999, lot 69. Two published bowls, also bearing Yongzheng reign marks, but of somewhat different shape, are relief-decorated with a band of archaistic dragon scroll, rather than flower scroll. One in the Robert Chang Collection, on which the band is reserved on a lemon-yellow ground, was sold at Christie's New York, 21 March 2000, lot 222, the other bowl, on which the band is highlighted in translucent green glaze, is illustrated by J. Ayers in Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, no. 211.

Christie’s. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 15 - 16 March 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza