Lot 325. A famille-verte 'Deer' bowl, Qing dynasty, late Kangxi-Yongzheng period. Diameter 7 1/8  in., 18.1 cm. Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 USD. Courtesy Sotheby’s.

the rounded sides rising from a straight foot to an everted rim, the exterior finely enameled with a stag and a doe recumbent alongside one another on a speckled green knoll, their bodies turned towards each other, the opposite side with five iron-red bats swooping through the air, the interior plain, the base with an underglaze blue mark of composite  Buddhist emblems enclosed in a double-square within a double circle, coll. no. 1363.

Property of The Jie Rui Tang Collection

Provenance: D & M Freedman, London, 2003. 

Note: The restrained composition and depiction of deer of a sweet, docile nature conveys a delicacy and sensitivity in keeping with porcelains produced late in the Kangxi period and into the first years of the Yongzheng period. The subject matter, a pair of spotted deer (lu) and five bats (wufu) is rife with good wishes for scholarly success, wealth, long life and happiness. The auspicious mark on the base reinforces the benevolent themes. Few examples of this type are known. A pair of similarly decorated bowls, attributed to the Yongzheng period, were sold in our London rooms 1st-2nd April 1974, lot 314; and a dish with a six-character Yongzheng mark was offered at Christie's Hong Kong, 31st March 1992, lot 810.

Sotheby's. KANGXI: The Jie Rui Tang Collection, New York, 20 March 2018, 11:00 AM