Lot 65. A rare pair of moulded pale celadon-glazed bowls, Yongzheng underglaze-blue six-character marks within double circles and of the period (1723-1735). Estimate £80,000 – £120,000 ($116,560 - $174,840). Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016 

The exterior of each bowl is moulded in low-relief with three descending bats, each clasping in its mouth a leafy spray with two gourds, covered overall in an even pale celadon glaze. 4 7/8 in. (12.3 cm.) diam. 

Provenance: From the collection of Mrs. M. E. G. Birtles.
Sotheby's London, 13 March 1973, lot 289.

Note: This exquisite and rare pair of bowls has a delicacy and precision characteristic of fine imperial wares of the Yongzheng period. The bowls are thinly potted but have sharply moulded low relief decoration under an even pale celadon glaze. The decorative scheme, with three bats each holding sections of vine with bottle gourds in their mouths, can also be seen on an imperial overglaze enamelled bowl from the Yongzheng reign in the Palace Museum, Beijing (illustrated inThe Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum 38 Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 171, no. 157). The design of bats and vines with bottle gourds is an auspicious one, which provides a rebus suggesting either fulu shuangguan 'May you have both blessings and wealth' or fulu wandai 'May you have blessings and emolument for ten thousand generations'. 

In the 18th century the Jingdezhen imperial kilns devoted considerable research and experimentation to the production of celadon glazes applied to a white porcelain body. Although celadon-type glazes, coloured with small quantities of iron, applied to a porcelain body were produced at Jingdezhen in the early Ming period, the Kangxi potters perfected a more delicate version applied to a very white (low iron) body. The delicate celadon glaze was coloured using only about half the amount of iron found in typical Longquan celadons. The glaze was further modified in the Yongzheng period to produce an even more finely textured and slightly bluer pale celadon glaze, like that seen on these exquisite bowls. These pale celadon glazes and the others created with minute variations in tone and texture have been much admired by Chinese connoisseurs and were given names such as douqing (bean green) and dongqing(eastern green) in the Kangxi reign, while the even more refined colours of the Yongzheng reign were given names such as fenqing (soft green) and dongqing (winter green), which is the colour of the glaze seen on this pair of bowls. 

Christie's. INSPIRED THEMES: A FINE SELECTION OF CHINESE WORKS OF ART, 10 May 2016, London, King Street