A pair of blue-ground famille-rose sgraffiato 'medallion' bowls, Seal marks and period of Daoguang

Collection of Sir Thomas Beaumont Hohler (1871-1946), and thence by descent.

This pair of finely decorated bowls depicts scenes from the story of the Cowherd (Niulang) and the Weaver Girl (Zhinü) who are reunited by magpies for one night each year above the Milky Way. Compare a very similar Daoguang bowl of this pattern in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Porcelains with Cloisonné Enamel Decoration and Famille Rose Decoration, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 215; another, exhibited in, Vom Schatz der Drachen / From the Dragon’s Treasure, London, 1987, cat. no. 40; and a pair from the Heiniger Collection, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 10th April 2004, lot 1725.