A fine copper-red 'three fish' bowl, Mark and period of Yongzheng

Sotheby's London, 17th December 1996, lot 90.

The Inder Rieden Collection.

Bonhams London, 15th May 2014, lot 42.

Designs in the form of underglaze red silhouettes of animals and fish originated in the Yongle period (1403-24), when they were generally combined with underglaze blue decoration, but were largely abandoned for centuries until their revival in the Yongzheng period due to the temperamental nature of copper-red pigments. 

Yongzheng bowls of this auspicious design are particularly rarely attested in this larger size. Compare an example preserved in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in Treasures in the Royalty: The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 162; and a pair from the E.T. Chow Collection was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 115.

For the Ming prototype of this form, compare the Xuande-marked bowl included in Exhibition of Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong, 1989, cat. no. 75.