A fine and extremely rare blue-ground 'peony' falangcai bowl Mark and period of Yongzheng

finely potted with shallow rounded sides gently flaring at the rim, supported on a short straight foot, the exterior superbly enamelled in brilliant 'famille-rose' enamels with four delicately painted peony blossoms in light pink and egg-yolk yellow, on scrolling stems with furled leaves and deep magenta buds, each flower-head gently enfolding within its petals a ruby-enamelled character in seal script on a lime-green ground, the characters reading wan shou chang chun, 'A myriad of happiness and longevity', all reserved on a deep lavender-blue ground, the base glazed white and inscribed with a four-character mark within a double-square

Christie's Hong Kong, 28th October 2002, lot 607.

The present piece belongs to a small group of wares enamelled in the imperial palace workshops for the use of the emperor and his family.  It belongs to one of the rarest types of imperial porcelain, since the technique of enamelling on porcelain began to be practised in the Forbidden City only in the very last years of the Kangxi reign. Although this bowl has a Yongzheng yuzhi mark, from the decoration, which closely follows that found on a small number of blue-ground Kangxi yuzhi bowls, it is most probable that this bowl was produced during the very early period of Yongzheng's reign.  The four characters in ruby-enamel read 'wan shou chang chun'  and can be translated as 'a myriad longevities and long youth'.

This type of bowl was made on the occasion of the emperor's birthday celebrations, with the first two characters 'wan shou'  specifically wishing the emperor longevitity and eternal youth. 
In shape and decoration this bowl is closely related to a small number of Kangxi prototypes, although all of which are slightly larger in size, such as the bowl in the British Museum illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelains, London, 1951, pl. XXXV bottom; another included in Shen Zhiyu (ed.), The Shanghai Museum of Art, New York, 1983, pl. 52; a third from the Percival David Foundation sold in our London rooms, 5th December 1961, lot 38;  a fourth from the Hartog collection included in the exhibition Tausend Jahre Chinesische Keramik,  Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, 1974, cat.no. 138; and one sold in our London rooms, 2nd April 1974, lot 351, and again in these rooms, 24th May 1978, lot 278, and 3rd May 1994, lot 218.

The shape and size of the present bowl compares favourably to a small group of exquisitely enamelled ruby-ground bowls decorated with three large detached peony flowers surrounded by stylised small flower sprays, but also bearing the Yongzheng yuzhi mark in blue enamel in double squares, such as the bowl from the Grandidier Bequest in the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated in Hugh Moss, By Imperial Command, Hong Kong, 1976, pl. 79, together with two nearly identical bowls in famille-verte enamels from the Maze Foundation, pl. 77, and the collection of Barry Dinan, pl. 78.