Previously one of a pair of bowls sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 29 November 1976, lot 608; and sold again at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 4 May 1994, lot 213.
An identical bowl is illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Shanghai, 1998, p. 140, figs. 95-1 and 95-2; where the author mentions that the blue enamel is very similar to the blue that was produced in the late Ming period. Another bowl from the Charles Russell and Paul Bernat Collections, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is illustrated by H. Moss, By Imperial Command, Hong Kong, 1976, pl. 74.
Other examples of this pattern include a pair of bowls from the Edward T. Chow collection, sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 25 November 1980, lot 143, illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong, 1987, p. 133, pl. 89, where a panoramic view is illustrated, pp. 134-135; another pair of bowls from the T.Y. Chao Collection sold in these Rooms, The Imperial Sale, 27 April 1997, no. 53; and a single bowl sold in these Rooms, 26 April 2004, lot 903. The present bowl is from a group of late Kangxi wares designed with this type of floral decoration but unlike those that are often found with either a pink or blue enamelled yuzhi reign mark, the use of an underglaze-blue yuzhi mark such as the present example was probably a specific instruction given directly from the Imperial Court, op. cit., p. 134.