A fine and rare pair of 'famille verte' coral-ground bowls marks and period of Yongzheng

each bowl of shallow form with rounded sides rising from a short foot to a subtly flared rim, brilliantly enamelled around the sides with three detached peony sprays, the luscious blooms with frilly-edged petals picked out in a thick, variegated blue enamel and framing iron-red shaded centres, each flower issuing in all directions cleft, arched leaves edged in yellow, with some sprouting smaller blooms in tones of aubergine, blue and yellow, all reserved on a rich coral-red ground, the interior and base glazed white, the base with a four-character mark in underglaze-blue within double squares 

Sotheby's Hong Kong, 26th October 1993, lot 143.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 27th April 2003, lot 191.

A similar bowl in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated in Chugoku toji zenshu, vol.21, Kyoto, 1981, pl.105. Two other bowls painted in this famille verte palette are illustrated in Hugh Moss, By Imperial Command, Hong Kong, 1976, pl.77 from the Maze Foundation, and pl.78 being one of a pair sold in these rooms, 22nd May 1979, lot 237. Another similar pair of bowls, from the British Rail Pension Fund, was sold in these rooms, 16th May 1989, lot 72, one of them subsequently illustrated in Sotheby's Hong Kong Twenty Years: 1973-1993, Hong Kong, pl.226.