A yellow-ground famille-rose 'floral' bowl, Seal mark and period of Qianlong

Collection of Frances Palmer (d. 1927), the widow of naval surgeon and artist, John Linton Palmer (1824-1903), and thence by descent.

Exquisitely painted with a luxuriant flower scroll, this piece belongs to a select group of imperial porcelain that was created to cater to the personal taste of the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1736-1795). The superior quality and exuberant flower scroll on these wares served to display the unsurpassed wealth of the Qing court. A predominant characteristic of these wares also evident on this bowl, is their successful combination of traditional Chinese elements with newly acquired motifs and technologies. On this piece the luxuriant scroll was endowed with a Westernised flavor thorough the feathery rendering of flowers and leaves and sparing use of white enamel to create the illusion of light and shadow. The subtle pastel hues used for the scroll are juxtaposed with a rich yellow ground, a colour traditionally reserved for the imperial court. Amongst bowls of this design the present piece is particularly rare for its four-character seal mark written within a double square in blue enamel.

Compare a pair of similar bowls from the collection of A. W. Bahr (1877-1959), illustrated in Old Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art in China, London, 1911, p. 137, pl. XCVI, and later sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 15th November 1988, lot 32, from the collection of Paul and Helen Bernat; another, sold in our New York rooms, 7th December 1983, lot 381; and a third bowl, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 8th October 1990, lot 323.

Yellow-ground enamelled famille-rose bowls with this pattern on the exterior, and five iron-red bats on the interior appear to have been made as early as the second year of the Qianlong reign, as noted by the Palace Museum in The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 205, no. 181. See another bowl with similar design but with a six-character seal mark in underglaze blue in the British Museum, London, illustrated in H. Moss, By Imperial Command, Hong Kong, 1976, pl. 6.