Lot Essay
Previously sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29 April 2002, lot 565.
The present bowl is related to four others of very similar design in famille verte and with Yongzheng yuzhi marks, one from the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Kondasha Series, vol. 7, Japan, 1981, col. pl. 45; one previously of the Fonthill Heirlooms, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition, Iron in the Fire, 1988, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 94; one from the British Rail Pension Fund, sold in Hong Kong, 16 May 1989, lot 73; and another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, The Imperial Sale, 29 April 2001, lot 551.
The famille verte palette was perfected during the Kangxi reign, and there are several known Kangxi yuzhi bowls with a similar variety of flowers in a continuous band against a coral-red ground, but none with the exact configuration as on the present Yongzheng bowl. For examples of these Kangxi bowls, cf. two examples from the Shanghai Museum, one of which is illustrated in Chogoku Toji Zenshu, vol. 21, pl. 76. The famille rose palette emerged at the end of the Kangxi period and developed further in the Yongzheng period, eventually phasing out the use of the famille verte enamels. The present bowl would have been made around this time, in the early 18th century.
The present bowl is related to four others of very similar design in famille verte and with Yongzheng yuzhi marks, one from the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, Kondasha Series, vol. 7, Japan, 1981, col. pl. 45; one previously of the Fonthill Heirlooms, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition, Iron in the Fire, 1988, and illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 94; one from the British Rail Pension Fund, sold in Hong Kong, 16 May 1989, lot 73; and another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, The Imperial Sale, 29 April 2001, lot 551.
The famille verte palette was perfected during the Kangxi reign, and there are several known Kangxi yuzhi bowls with a similar variety of flowers in a continuous band against a coral-red ground, but none with the exact configuration as on the present Yongzheng bowl. For examples of these Kangxi bowls, cf. two examples from the Shanghai Museum, one of which is illustrated in Chogoku Toji Zenshu, vol. 21, pl. 76. The famille rose palette emerged at the end of the Kangxi period and developed further in the Yongzheng period, eventually phasing out the use of the famille verte enamels. The present bowl would have been made around this time, in the early 18th century.