Lot 10. The Au Bak Ling Collection. A famille verte 'dragon and phoenix' dish, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1662-1722); 25.1 cm diam. Price realised HKD 1,512,000 (Estimate HKD 1,200,000-1,800,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2024.

The dish is sturdily potted with shallow curved sides rising from a short tapered foot, well painted on the interior in underglaze-blue and enamelled in vibrant tones of green, iron-red, yellow and aubergine, with a pair of five-clawed dragons and a pair of phoenixes arranged around a central peony blossom amidst other scattered flowers and buds borne on leafy stems. The inner and outer sides have similar designs of striding dragons and phoenix in flight amidst further blossoms and foliage, all within double-line borders.

Provenance: A Japanese Private Collection
Sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 November 2006, lot 1533
The Property of an Important American Private Collector, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 3048.

Exhibited: S. Marchant & Son, Recent Acquisitions, London, 2003, catalogue no. 5

Note: The design of this dish is inspired by Wanli period wucai dishes. Compare to a Wanli mark and period dish with dragons on a floral scroll ground in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 38 - Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 50.

Kangxi-marked dishes of this design include one illustrated by John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and AlbertMuseum, London, 1980, no. 192 (32.7 cm.); one illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol.38: Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, Hong Kong, 1999, no. 133 (32.4 cm.); one from the Chang Foundation, Taipei, illustrated in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, no.122 (32 cm.); and another illustrated in The Tsui Museum of Art: Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1991, no.98 (32.5 cm.), where Yang Boda mentions in his introduction to the collection that the dish is an excellent example of Imperial wucai ware, p. 61.

Christie's. The Au Bak Ling Collection: The Inaugural Sale, Hong Kong, 26 September 2024