This lot is an example of the continuation of an earlier Kangxi style of wares produced by Imperial Command with yuzhi marks. For Kangxi period examples, cf. a pair of famille verte coral-ground bowls from the T.Y. Chao Private and Family Trust, sold in these Rooms, 27 April 1997, lot 53.

Developments in the opaque colours including pink enamel, later known as famille rose, appeared towards the end of the Kangxi reign, increased the repertoire of decorative overglaze colours, and as such enabled the creation of more complex patterns, exemplified by additional flowers round the body and rockwork at the base of the present lot. The enamels are vibrant, particularly the blue and yellow contrasting effectively against a ground of lighter matt, iron-red on a thin translucent body. The delicate black outlines indicating the veins of leaves are fixed under two varying shades of green enamel.

A similar bowl but with a Yongzheng mark, from the Charles Russell Collection is illustrated by Hobson, Chinese Ceramics in Private Collections, p. 194, fig. 349 and col. pl. 29A; another from the Reitlinger Collection is illustrated by Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1979, pl. XLV, together with a Daoguang copy.

Compare with a similar Qianlong-marked bowl sold in our New York Rooms, 2 December 1986, lot 202.