Lot 112. Property sold to benefit the Newark museum acquisition endowment. A rare yellow-ground and iron-red-decorated 'dragon' bowl, Mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735). Diameter 11.8 cm, Lot sold 66,040 USD (Estimate 40,000 - 60,000 USD). © Sotheby's 2024

Provenance: Collection of Herman A. E. (d.1951) and Paul C. (d. 1951) Jaehne.

Gifted to The Newark Museum, Newark, in 1941 (accession no. 41.1973).

Note:  The present bowl is striking for its rare combination of fiercely painted dragons in iron-red enamels on a lustrous yellow ground. Yongzheng bowls of this type are exceptionally rare and only a few have been recorded. See a closely related example illustrated in Chinese Porcelain in the S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1987, cat. no. 102; another was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Iron in the Fire, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1988, cat. no. 80; a third, was sold in these rooms, 30th May 1990, lot 190. A Yongzheng mark and period dish, similarly decorated in iron-red, but on a café-au-lait ground, from the Barbara and Lester Levy Collection, was recently sold in these rooms, 20th September 2023, lot 510.

This type continued to be produced under the Qianlong Emperor, and Qianlong mark and period bowls of this design are more commonly found. See a Qianlong mark and period bowl in the Palace Museum, Beijing (accession no. Gu 152688), illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong: Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 334, pl. 15; another in the Nanjing Museum, included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Nanjing Museum, 1995, cat. no. 84; a further bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (accession no. CIRC.1355-1926), illustrated in Rose Kerr, Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1986, fig. 27; lastly, a pair recently sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 12th October 2021, lot 25.