Lot 3178. A fine yellow-ground 'bats' bowl, mark and period of Yongzheng(1723-1735); 15 cm., 5 7/8 in. Estimate 700,000 — 900,000 HKD. Lot Sold 3,620,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

the steep rounded sides supported on a flared foot, incised around the exterior with twelve iron-red and white bats in flight, each holding a pale-green double-gourd suspended from a blue ribbon in its beak, set amidst swirling green clouds with incised detailing, all between a band of interlinked ruyi-heads at the rim and a band of upright lappets at the foot, covered overall in a lemon-yellow ground, inscribed to the base with a six-character mark within a double circle in underglaze-blue.

Note: A closely related example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Qingdai yuyao ciqi, vol. I, pt. II, Beijing, 2005, pl. 66; one from the Constantinidi collection is published in Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. LXIX, fig. 3; two were sold in these rooms, one from the collection of the British Rail Pension Fund, 16th May 1989, lot 78, and the other, 25th April 2004, lot 231; and a pair of bowls, one from the Elphinstone collection, was sold in our London rooms, 7th June 1994, lot 390.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 april 2011