A fine Chinese coral-red reverse decorated ’floral’ bowl

The finely and deeply potted bowl resting on a short straight foot, the exterior reverse-decorated in a rich iron-red enamel with a continuous scroll of peony heads alternating with lotus and hibiscus flowers and linked by curling tendrils, all reserved in white against the opaque coral ground, the interior in a white glaze, the white base inscribed in underglaze blue with a square seal mark of Qianlong. Diameter: 13 cm.

A similar Qianlong bowl from the Sir Percival David Collection in the British Museum is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, vol.6, Tokyo, 1982, col. pl. 94; another from the collection of E. and J. Baerwald was included in the Ausstellung Chinesischer Kunst, Berlin, 1929, cat. no. 1034.