Lot Essay
Bowls of this rare type have been dated either Kangxi or Yongzheng period. One in the Victoria and Albert Museum, illustrated by J. Ayers in Far Eastern Ceramics, London, 1980, pl. 201, is dated c. 1720-1725, and was also illustrated by R. Soame Jenyns in Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. LVII (2), where it was dated Kangxi/Yongzheng transition. One with a Kangxi mark in the Robert C. Bruce Collection, was included in the O.C.S. exhibition, Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty, London, 1951, pl. 22, no. 98. Another dated to the Kangxi period, but unmarked, in the collection of King Gustav VI Adolf of Sweden, is illustrated by J. Wirgin in "K'ang-Hsi Porcelain", BMFEA 46, Stockholm, 1951, pl. 27 (a and b). Another bowl of this pattern, with Chenghua mark, but dated to the 18th century, is illustrated by R.L. Hobson, The Eumorfopoulos Collection, vol. IV, London, 1927, pl. XIII, no. 67. The painting on this latter bowl is not as refined as that of the present and other aforementioned bowls. See, also, the similar bowl sold at Christie's New York, 16 September 2010, lot 1382.