Lot 523. A rare yellow-ground green-enamelled 'Peach and Bird' bowl, Yongzheng six-character mark and of the period (1723-1735); 4 7/8in (12.4cm) diam. Estimate: US$20,000 - US$30,000. Sold for US$ 150,075 (€ 132,715). © Bonhams 2001-2019

Well potted with deep rounded sides supported on a tapered foot ring, the exterior finely incised and reserved in green enamel against the yellow-glazed ground with a repeated pattern of a fruiting peach tree and blossoming sprays growing adjacent to a garden rock, with two birds perched on the grass and two further birds in flight, all between a pair of incised lines filled with green enamel at the rim and another pair of incised lines around the foot ring, the yellow base inscribed in brown with the six-character reign mark within a double circle.

Provenance: Virginia Hobart (1876-1958), thence by descent.

Note: A bowl similar to the present lot is illustrated by John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, pl. 210. One example was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2013, lot 3122; and another at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 October 2002, lot 740; and a third example was sold in our London rooms 17 May 2012, lot 329. 

Bonhams. Chinese Works of Art, New York, 18 March 2019