Description
A rare Chinese doucai butterfly and flowers conical bowl, the flared sides raised on a short straight foot and delicately enamelled on the exterior with four floral medallions enclosing the flowers of the Four Seasons including peony, chrysanthemum, lotus and prunus, the interior painted with a central medallion enclosing two butterflies and a flower sprig, all encircled by a double line border repeated at the rim, the base with a six character Yongzheng mark and of the period 1723-35, 22.3cm.
A similar Yongzheng doucai bowl from the Qing Court Collection is illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Colelction, pl.31, and also in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, pl.229. Another bowl of this pattern in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, Kansas City, is illustrated in Seki tôji zenshû, vol. 12, pl.64; and one in the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, University of Durham, is included in Ireneus Làszlò Legeza, Malcolm MacDonald Collection of Chinese Ceramics, pl. CXXXIX, no. 378.