AN EXTREMELY RARE AND EXQUISITE FAMILLE-ROSE BOWL WITH MEDALLIONS OF PEACHES AND BATS MARK AND PERIOD OF YONGZHENG

of deep rounded form standing on a short straight foot, the recessed base forming a slightly domed centre on the interior, exquisitely enamelled on the exterior with five roundels, each variously depicting a pair of bats in iron red darting through the branches of a fruiting and flowering peach tree, three with a pink-flowering variety with four fruits and two with white double blossoms bearing two fruits, the peaches shaded from rose pink over white to yellow and green, and detailed with pink spots, the white blossoms with touches of pale green and yellow centre, the brown branches issuing well differentiated veined leaves, ranging from yellow over yellowish green to blue-green, all masterfully drawn with minute detailing, the boughs arching to form the edges of the medallions, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark within a double ring in underglaze blue, wood stand

Collection of Alfred E. Hippisley (1848-1939).
C.T. Loo & Cie, Paris.
John Sparks, London (1935).
Collection of R.H.R. Palmer (no. 399).
Eskenazi Ltd, London.

The Hippisley Collection of Chinese Porcelains, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., 1902, cat. no. 96 (see below).
An Exhibition of Chinese Bronze, Pottery and Porcelain, in Conjunction with Messrs. C.T. Loo of Paris, John Sparks, London, 1935, cat. no. 329.
Enamelled Polychrome Porcelain of the Manchu Dynasty 1644-1912, The Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1951, cat. no. 174.

A.E. Hippisley, A Sketch of the History of Ceramic Art in China. With a Catalogue of the Hippisley Collection of Chinese Porcelains, Washington, D.C., 1902, cat. no. 96.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1755.

There is a faint hairline of approx. 7 mm above one roundel, otherwise the bowl is in good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

This bowl shows one of the rare and masterfully devised Yongzheng designs of perfectly circular, unbordered medallions harmoniously formed from a combination of seemingly unsuitable shapes: branches, curled leaves, five-petalled blossoms and bats’ wings. A similar concept was realized on the so-called butterfly bowls of the Yongzheng period, of which Republican copies exist that illustrate the difficulty of creating coherent roundels from such disparate elements; see Ye Peilan, Appraising Ancient Chinese Ceramics, Taipei, 1994, pp. 175-6.

Although the peach-and-bat design, combining a pink-flowering and a double white variety of the peach tree, was very popular in the Yongzheng period for overall designs on dishes, bowls and vases, the present pattern is extremely rare and only one other bowl appears to be recorded, sold in these rooms, 25th November 1981, lot 285.

Alfred E. Hippisley, Commissioner of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service in China, was one of the first Westerners to discover the beauty and quality of Qing imperial porcelains. He loaned some three hundred items, overwhelmingly of the Qing dynasty, to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. already in 1887. Much of his collection was sold at Anderson Galleries, predecessors of Sotheby’s in New York, in 1925, and many of his pieces ended up in the Sir Percival David Collection and are today in the British Museum, London.