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

Yongzheng doucai vessels are much inspired by Chenghua porcelain in terms of the choice of the motifs, painting style and the softness of the enamel colours. The depiction of the ‘pomegranate-shaped’ pistil seen on the present bowls is closely modelled after that found on Chenghua prototypes, as evinced by an iron-red decorated blue and white cup in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Ch’eng-hua Porcelain Ware, Taipei, 2003, no. 54 (fig. 1). Three Chenghua-style doucai dishes from the Jiajing period painted with the same lotus-scroll motif are illustrated ibid., nos. 119-121, with no. 121 bearing a Jiajing reign mark.
The pattern on the current pair of bowls is very rare, and only one other example of this pattern appears to have been published, which is in the Jingdezen Ceramic Museum, illustrated in Jiangxi cangci quanji – Qingdai, vol. 1, Beijing, 2005, p. 161 (fig. 2).