Beschreibung:

A RARE IMPERIAL WHITE-GLAZED BOWL WITH CUT-OUT DECORATIONQianlong seal mark and of the period
Unusually and very delicately decorated, carved through the very thin body with an elaborate continuous design comprising seven profile flower heads, each within a continuous scrolling meander, the empty spaces pierced in the body only filled with the almost clear glaze. 13.5cm (5 1/4in) diam.Footnotes清乾隆 白釉玲瓏瓷纏枝蓮紋碗
青花「大清乾隆年製」篆書款
Provenance: Garland collection, by repute
A European private collection
來源：Garland舊藏（據傳）
歐洲私人收藏
James Garland (1840-1900) was born in Philadelphia. He was the Vice-President of the First National Bank of New York. He was also a co-founder of the Northern Pacific Railroad and towards the end of his life he moved to London as a partner with J.P. Morgan. He was a serious collector of tapestries, oriental jades and Chinese porcelain. The James A. Garland Collection was one of the largest and most comprehensive in the United States. The collection was on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until 1902 when the heirs sold it to the Duveen Brothers, who had then sold it to J.P. Morgan.
The present lot is notable for its exquisite lace-like decoration, which was made by piercing the body with a delicate openwork design of small perforations that were subsequently filled with a clear glaze. An innovation of the Qianlong period, this decoration is known in the West as 'grains-de-riz' (rice grain), because the tiny perforations resembled small grains of rice.
Compare with a related bowl, illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong: Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pl.147; another in the Palace Museum, Taipei, is published by J.Ayers and S.Masahiko, eds, Ceramic Art of the World, vol.15, Tokyo, 1983, pl.280; one with a more elaborate motif is illustrated by R.Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol.2, London, 1994, pl.793, and later sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8 October 2012, lot 3; a pair from the Alfred F. Pillsbury collection in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, included in the exhibition Chinese Ceramics from the Prehistoric Period through Ch'ien-Lung, Los Angeles, 1952, no.320; another slightly smaller pair in the Zhuyuetang Collection, is illustrated by L.Schwartz-Arenales, eds, Mille ans de Monochromes, Geneva, 2018, p.372, no.197a-b.
See also a similar white glazed 'cut-out' decoration bowl and cover, Qianlong seal mark and of the period, which was sold at Christie's New York, 21-22 March 2013, lot 1501. A similar pair of bowls, Qianlong seal marks and of the period, was sold at Sotheby's London, 6 November 2019, lot 7. Another very similar white-glazed 'cut through' lotus bowl, Qianlong seal mark and of the period, was also sold at Bonhams London, 5 November 2020, lot 29.