Lot 1534. A fine iron-red decorated 'Immortals' bowl, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 6 3/4 in. (17.1 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 300,000 - HKD 500,000. Price realised HKD 360,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2006

Finely painted around the exterior of the bowl in shades of iron-red with the Eight Daoist Immortals, each bearing an attribute, accompanied by various attendants, fishermen and a dancer, four of the deities riding a buffalo, a carp, a crane and a ram, the details of their faces, hair and clothes picked out in black and green enamel, the base inscribed in iron-red with the four character mark fushou wujiang, 'fortune and longevity without end', box. 

Note: A near identical bowl is in the Qing Court collection, illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 118; while another was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Iron in the Fire, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1988, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 79.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, Hong Kong, 28 November 2006