Lot 1765. A rare iron-red and black enamel-decorated 'Immortals' bowl, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double-circle and of the period (1662-1722); 6¾ in. (17.1 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 70,000 - USD 90,000. Price realised USD 170,500. © Christie's Images Ltd 2011. 

With steep sides rising to the slightly flared rim, painted around the exterior in iron red with fourteen immortals and a deer in iron-red, including one figure conjuring a black and white crane from a double gourd, Shoulao standing holding a staff, and Dongfang Shuo holding a peach branch over his shoulder, others holding a staff, a ruyi scepter, a fly-whisk and an open scroll painted with a taiji symbol, some details of their faces, hair and clothes picked out in black enamel, box.

Note: An 'immortals' bowl of almost the exact same size (17 cm. diam.) in the collection of the National Museum of China is illustrated in Studies of the Collections of the National Museum of China, Shanghai 2007, p. 36, pl. 20.

A related Kangxi-period bowl with immortals painted in iron red and black enamel, although between underglaze-blue double-lines, is in the Qing Court collection, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 118; while another was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Iron in the Fire, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1988, no. 79.

See, also, the Kangxi-marked bowl of the same size and decoration sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 1 December 2010, lot 3047.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Part I and Part II Including Property from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, New York, 24 March 2011