Lot 3624. An exceptionally fine pair of doucai 'floral' bowls, marks and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735). Estimate 3,000,000 — 5,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 3,680,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's.

each with deep rounded sides rising from a short foot to a gently flaring rim, finely decorated on the interior with a medallion of composite iron-red, white and blue-petalled flowers encircled by a band of diaper cells enclosing red florets and further wreathed by interlocked blue and green strapwork, all below double-line borders at the rim, the exterior with six similar clusters of flowers springing from the foot and framed by interlocked foliate and budding scrolls forming strapwork panels, all below a yellow-ground band of underglaze-blue ruyi at the rim, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark within a double-circle; 15.2 cm, 6 in.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 14th November 1989, lot 225.
S. Marchant & Son, London.

Exhibited: Recent Acquisitions 2003, S. Marchant & Son, London, 2003, cat. no. 13.

Notes: Finely painted in a bright doucai palette, this lotus bouquet design was a Yongzheng innovation that was reproduced by successive Qing emperors. The careful painting of the yellow and green enamels, which sit slightly raised on the surface, create a sense of depth as well as the additional aesthetics effect of reflecting light when cast upon it. The curling scrolls are inspired by French rococo designs which echo the Chinese traditional ruyi motif that runs around the exterior rim. A reconstructed bowl of this type is illustrated in Gu taoci ziliao xuancui [Selection of ancient ceramics], Beijing, 2005, vol. 2, pl. 143; another from the Toguri Museum of Art, Tokyo, was sold in our London rooms, 9th June 2004, lot 1; and two pairs of bowls were sold in these rooms, the first from the collection of Edward T. Chow, 25th November 1980, lot 128, and the second from the collections of Louis Johnson and Katherine J. Hill, 3rd May 1994, lot 134. Compare also a related doucai floral bouquet decorated meiping, with a Yongzheng reign mark and of the period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 225, together with a flask, pl. 224. 

For later versions of this design, see a Qianlong example sold in these rooms, 9th October 2012, lot 3100; a Jiaqing bowl, in the Nanjing Museum, published in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 362; and a Daoguang version, from the Simon Kwan collection, included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain of the Late Qing, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1983, cat. no. 28.

Sotheby's, Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 05 oct. 2016