Pair of Bowls with Peony Sprays on Diaper Ground (exterior); Chrysanthemum Sprays (interior)

The production of extraordinarily refined Qing imperial wares such as these could have involved the transportation of undecorated, plain porcelains from the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, to the palace workshops in Beijing, where court painters applied the polychrome enamel decoration. The Qianlong reign mark on the base of the bowl is written with blue enamel over the transparent glaze.