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A fine and rare Pair of famille rose Bowls with thinly potted, rounded sides, slightly flared at the rim, painted on the exterior with bands of iron-red bats among scrolling gourd vine above petal borders, the five bats (wufu) shown flying in different positions, their wings and bodies shaded in tones of red, the scrolling double or bottle gourds growing from a single undulating branch with lobed leaves coloured in green and turquoise-blue with strong grey veining, among short tendrils, the larger fruit coloured in yellow and the smaller unripe gourds in green, all with darker blotches, the flowers and buds in tones of pale yellow, the bases of the bowls encircled by rings of swirled petals in shaded pale pink with darker pink veining, outlined in green with a further blue outline running along the tops of the petals, the six character mark of Yongzheng written in underglaze-blue in two columns enclosed by a double square on the base of each bowl, period of Yongzheng (1723-1735), 4 3/4in. (12cm.) diameter. Esitmate - Refer Department. Only one other bowl of this pattern seems to be recorded, formerly in the Robert Chang Collection, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28th November 2006, lot 1308 and previously sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 17th January, 1989, lot 688. This bowl was exhibited at Christie's London, An Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, 2nd-14th June 1993, cat.no.93 A related bowl of slightly larger size with very similar mark in the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in Gugong Bowuyuan Cang: Qingdai Yuyao Ciqi (Palace Museum Collection, Qing Dynasty Imperial Porcelain), juan 1, ce xia, no.83, pp.192-3. Here there are three symmetrical compositions of gourds below bats with outstretched wings, a narrow flower scroll border below the lip and a band of narrow hooked red petals around the base. Unlike the present bowls which lack line borders, the Beijing bowl has iron-red line borders enclosing the rim border and around the footring. The combination of bats and bottle gourds carries auspicious meaning. The Chinese for bottle gourd (hulu) is a near pun on fulu meaning happiness and riches. In the Qianlong period the subject of bats and gourds appears on a Beijing enamelled falangcai vase in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, and on a gold ground vase, itself of gourd shape tied with a pink ribbon, both illustrated in Good Fortune, Long Life, Health and Peace: Special Exhibition of Porcelains with Auspicious Designs, Taipei 1995, cat.nos.28 and 33.