The form of the present lot is very rare, and only one other stembowl of this exact shape and design appears to be published, previously from the collections of Messrs. Sparks and W. A. Younger, illustrated by S. Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1961, pl. XXXVI, fig. 2.

Compare similar stembowls with taller stemfoot, incised with the bajixiang, and with a Yongzheng mark inscribed on the interior edge of the stemfoot, one in the Baur Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, Vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pl. 315; one from the Percival David Foundation, London, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha Series, Vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, fig. 259; and another sold in our New York Rooms, 1 December 1988, lot 270.

The design of the bajixiang and the shape of the stembowl may be found on a Ming dynasty blue and white prototype with Xuande mark, in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated by S. Pierson, Designs as Signs, London, 2001, fig. 81.