YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARKS IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN DOUBLE CIRCLES AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

The present bowls are exquisitely enamelled using famille rose in the boneless-style, so called because the design is painted in without the use of outlines. This style of decoration is perhaps the least common of the enamelling techniques used at Jingdezhen as it was too complicated to use on a mass production scale, and if not handled well, gives the impression that the piece was unfinished. Compare a similar Yongzheng mark and period famille rose ‘floral’ bowl painted in the same style in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelains with Cloisonne Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1997, p. 84, no. 73 (fig. 1).