Lot 103. A massive 'doucai' 'Dragon' dish, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722);  55.5cm., 21 7/8 in. Estimate 15,000 — 20,000 GBP. Lot Sold 30,000 GBP. Photo courtesy Sotheby's 2008

the gently curved sides rising from a short tapering foot to an everted rim, brightly painted and enamelled to the interior with a medallion enclosing a large scaly dragon grasping a 'pearl of wisdom' emblazoned with a shou character, encircled by nine large carp leaping from tumultuous foaming waves, the exterior with a band of foaming waves, the base with apocryphal six-character Chenghua mark within a circle.

Note: This impressive dish is rare for its idiosyncratic depiction of the shou medallion that is gripped within the five claws of the dragon, and for the dense and dynamic composition that radiates from the centre. Although smaller dishes decorated with a similar subject are known, the dragon is generally depicted with arms wide open and encircled by four or five fish leaping through a single row of stylised waves; such as the pair included in the Hong Kong Oriental Ceramics Society exhibition Ch'ing Polychrome Porcelain, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1977, cat. no. 52; one sold in these rooms, 14^th July 1981, lot 127; another sold in our New York rooms, 24^th June 1981, lot 388; and a blue and white version sold in these rooms, 18th June 1985, lot 206.

The present dish is inspired by contemporaneous blue and white porcelain; see a dish decorated with a central dragon and nine fish around the well, all on a pencilled wave ground of stylised waves, offered in our Hong Kong rooms, 19^th May 1977, lot 544; and a dish with a closely related dragon holding a shou medallion, surrounded by four further dragons and a crashing waves rim, sold in these rooms, 18th November 1998, lot 1011.

The carp is associated with motifs for passing the civil service examinations. According to traditional belief, carp swimming upstream in the Yellow River must leap the rapids of Dragon's Gate, and the first to successfully do so is transformed into a dragon. This legend is a metaphor for a poor young scholar who passes the civil service exams to become a high official, and was a favourite motif of the Kangxi emperor, who had a keen interest in learning and reorganised the Academy to allow such young talents the opportunity to sit the exams. Versions of this motif is found on various vessels from the Kangxi period; see a shallow blue and white basin painted with a dragon and two fish, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Chen Runmin, Qing Shunzhi Kangxi qiao qinghua ci, Beijing, 2005, pl. 174.