RARE ET MAGNIFIQUE PAIRE DE BOLS IMPÉRIAUX EN PORCELAINE À DÉCOR AUX ÉMAUX DE LA FAMILLE VERTE SUR FOND CORAIL MARQUES KANGXI YUZHI ET ÉPOQUE KANGXI |

les bords très fins et profonds s'élargissant vers des bords légèrement évasés et reposant sur un court pied droit, le pourtour extérieur décoré d'émaux polychromes vibrants de fleurs automnales luxuriantes telles que pivoines, chrysanthèmes, coquelicots et pommetiers parmi une végétation luxuriante, l'ensemble traité avec virtuosité dans une palette aux tonalités bleu pâle, jaune pâle, verte tendre et foncé sur fond corail uni, l'intérieur laissé blanc, marque à quatre caractères dans un double carré Kangxi yuzhi en bleu sous couverte à la base (2)

One bowl with a ca. 0,5 cm wide narrow chip to the rim, and another ca. 0.5x0.3cm large shallow chip to the rim. There is a ca. 2 cm long crescent-shaped line / glaze flaw on the inside foot.There is very light overall wear to the enamels which are bright and lustrous. The yellow enamels very slightly crackled. The second bowl with two hairline cracks to the rim, one extending ca. 3.3 cm into the sides, the other extending ca. 0.7 cm into the sides. There are 3 pin-point imperfections to the lip. There is very light overall wear to the enamels which are bright and lustrous.
"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."

Those bowls belong to a small group of wares adorned with vibrantly coloured designs over a coral ground, and with yuzhi reign ('made for imperial use of …') marks. These are rare and suggest a closer relationship to the imperial court. Wares enamelled in the imperial workshops in the Forbidden City of Beijing rather than by the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, bear such yuzhi marks, but in overglaze-blue or pink enamel, since the plain white porcelains came from Jingdezhen fully glazed and fired. The significance of the underglaze-blue yuzhi mark, which would have been added at Jingdezhen, has been much discussed, especially since identical bowls are also known with underglaze-blue nianzhi marks. It has been suggested that such bowls were enamelled in the Palace in Beijing, with only the mark inscribed at Jingdezhen before firing. They seem, however, very different from the typical Kangxi porcelains made in the Beijing palace workshops, and are part of a small but well-known range of pieces with the same design painted in the characteristic Jingdezhen wucai ('five colour') palette of the Kangxi period, which in the West is known as the famille-verte. It is therefore most likely that they were decorated in Jingdezhen, even if their marks may indicate direct use at the palace. Hugh Moss in By Imperial Command. An Introduction to Ch’ing Imperial Painted Enamels, Hong Kong, 1976, p. 82, discusses wares of this type and notes that until the craftsmen of Jingdezhen became acquainted with the newly developed famille-rose palette of the Palace Workshops, they continued to work in the dominant style of the Kangxi period. This means that the production of the bowls we are presenting is more situated at the end of Kangxi Emperor's reign.

Bowls of this type are held in important private and museum collections worldwide; a pair in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Porcelain with Painted Enamels of Qing Yongzheng Period, Taipei, 2013, pl. 21; one in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, is published in Wang Qingzheng, Kangxi Porcelain wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 95; another in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, is illustrated in He Li, Chinese Ceramics. A New Standard Guide, London, 1996, pl. 653; a pair, from the Edward T. Chow collection and now in the S.C. Ko Tianminlou collection, included in the exhibition Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1987, cat. no. 89, was sold in these rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 143; and another pair from the Wah Kwong, T.Y. Chao and Meiyintang collections, published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 4, London, 1994-2010, pl. 1724, was sold several times at auction, most recently in these rooms 7th April 2011, lot 4.

Similar bowls with Yongzheng yuzhi, Yongzheng nianzhi, as well as six-character Yongzheng and Qianlong reign marks are illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV. Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pls. 158-60 and 166, together with a rare Palace Workshop example with a Kangxi yuzhi mark in pink enamel, pl. 123.