Bowl with Polychrome Enamel Design of a Pheasant and Peonies

This bowl, with a tapering body and a foot ring, has four blue characters in regular script (kai shu) indicating that it was made in the Yongzheng era. Its inside wall is covered with pure white glaze. The outside is decorated with a pheasant, peony blossoms and an ink poetic inscription. The visually arresting painting depicts a male pheasant with brilliant tail searching for food among the flowers and rocks. The bowl has elegant colors and excellent painting techniques. Inscribed on the outside is a two-line poem in cursive script (cao shu), reading,
Tender pistils seem to be gilded with gold powder,
Multi-petal flowers are reflecting the auspicious clouds.
A crimson-pink seal precedes the poem, while following the poem are other two seals in the same color.   Porcelain wares with enamel, created in the fifty-first year of the Kangxi reign (1712), were looked upon as precious objects for use in the palace and highly valued by successive emperors. Polychrome porcelain production reached its height during this time. This bowl exemplifies the high quality of porcelain producing techniques