A fine and rare pair of doucai 'floral scroll' bowls, Marks and period of Yongzheng | 清雍正 鬪彩纏枝番蓮紋盌一對 《大清雍正年製》款

S. Marchant & Son, London.

馬錢特，倫敦

These elegant bowls are particularly notable for their exquisitely painted floral scroll in soft pastel enamels. Cobalt pencilled lines are painted with great precision and the overglaze enamels are carefully shaded in graduating tones. The doucai palette, which was originally developed in the Chenghua reign, gained popularity in the Yongzheng period as it was ideally suited to the Emperor’s taste for delicate and unassuming porcelains. Although this bowl does not closely follow a specific prototype, it nevertheless takes inspiration from the Chenghua period both through the choice of palette and the delicate painting style. 

A closely related bowl was sold twice in these rooms, 8th November 1982, lot 207 and 13th November 1990, lot 32, from the Goldschmidt collection; one, from the collections of George S. Palmer and Mr and Mrs Warren Rice, was sold in our New York rooms, 13th March 1975, lot 455; and a further bowl, from the collection of Mrs James Alsdorf, was sold at Christie’s New York, 29th March 2006, lot 494.

Bowls similarly decorated with leafy floral scrolls bearing camelia blossoms coloured in shades of yellow, iron red and purple between a floral band at the mouth and variation of the ruyi band at the foot, include a pair from the Paul and Helen Bernat collection, sold in these rooms 15th November 1988, lot 15, and again at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th November 2012, lot 2198; another pair sold in our London rooms, 6th July 1971, lot 241; and a single bowl from the Elphinstone collection, sold in these rooms, 26th October 1993, lot 152, and again at Christie’s London, 15th June 1998, lot 162.