A rare coral-ground famille-verte 'floral' bowl, Yuzhi mark and period of Yongzheng | 清雍正 珊瑚紅地五彩九秋同慶紋盌 《雍正御製》款

Sotheby's London, 21st February 1967, lot 108.

Collection of Dr Wou Kiuan (1910-1997).

Wou Lien-Pai Museum, 1968-present, coll. no. Q.8.21.

倫敦蘇富比1967年2月21日，編號108

吳權博士 (1910-1997) 收藏

吳蓮伯博物院，1968年至今，編號Q.8.21

Rose Kerr et al., Chinese Antiquities from the Wou Kiuan Collection. Wou Lien-Pai Museum, Hong Kong, 2011, pl. 138.

柯玫瑰等，《Chinese Antiquities from the Wou Kiuan Collection. Wou Lien-Pai Museum》，香港，2011年，圖版138

This bowl is a very rare and unusual example of a well-known group of wares. Bowls with this type of lush flower decoration on a coral-red ground, which were made around the late Kangxi and early Yongzheng period and revived in the Qianlong reign, are known with Kangxi and Yongzheng yu zhi, Yongzheng nian zhi, six-character Yongzheng marks and Qianlong seal marks; examples of these various types, all smaller in size, taller in proportion and flared, are illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art. Chinese Ceramics IV: Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995 pls. 158-60 and 166. A similar large bowl from the British Rail Pension Fund, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 16th May 1989, lot 73, is illustrated in Sotheby's. Thirty Years in Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 318.  

The use of the phrase yu zhi [made to imperial order] suggests a closer relationship to the imperial court than the regular wording nian zhi [made in the period of...] and follows the style of marking used at the imperial enamelling workshops in Beijing, which applied yu zhi marks in enamel colours.

Compare a closely related bowl in the Musée Guimet, Paris, illustrated in La céramique chinoise ancienne, Paris, 2015, pg. 212; and another, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 29th April 2002, lot 565.