A magnificent and very rare carved celadon-glazed moonflask mark and period of Yongzheng

superbly potted with gently rounded sides, the circular body rising from an unglazed footring to a cylindrical neck flanked by a pair of scrolling ruyi handles, finely carved on each side with five luxuriant lotus blooms amid scrolling feathery leaves, the neck encircled with upright leaf lappets above a scrolling band,  the attractive glossy glaze thinning on the raised surfaces to enhance the decoration, the countersunk base with a six-character seal-mark in underglaze-blue

A Private Scottish Collection. 

Yongzheng moon flasks of this beautiful celadon glaze and exceptional carving of stylized lotus in low relief are rare, although a very similar flask, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in the Special Exhibition of K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, cat.no. 61. 

See also a closely related flask from the collections of Sir Frederick Bruce, G.C.B., Robert C. Bruce and Riesco, sold in our London rooms, 12th May 1953, lot 96, and again, 11th December 1984, lot 437, and at Christie's New York, 5th June 1986, lot 353. Sir Frederick Bruce, who accompanied James, eighth Earl of Elgin, a secretary to the expedition to China which culminated in the capture of Peking in 1860, remained in China as Ambassador from 1860-1865.