YONGZHENG SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1723-1735)

The glaze of the present bowl is notable for its vibrant and very even pinkish-red tone. Achieving a successful copper-red glaze under reduction firing conditions was notoriously difficult, often producing a variegated surface, a characteristic more commonly associated with porcelains of the Kangxi period. In contrast, most Yongzheng mark-and-period copper-red-glazed bowls feature white interiors, making the present example unusual for being covered in copper-red glaze both inside and out. A closely related Yongzheng mark-and-period bowl with an overall copper-red glaze was sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 24 November 1987, lot 129, and again at Christie’s New York, 21 September 2000, lot 394; it was later included in the Marchant exhibition Recent Acquisitions 2010, London, 2010, pp. 62–63, no. 36. For an early Ming prototype of slightly larger size (20.7 cm diameter), similarly glazed inside and out in copper red in The Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, now housed in the British Museum, London, see M. Medley, The World’s Great Collections: Oriental Ceramics, vol. 6, London, Tokyo/New York/San Francisco, 1982, no. 27.