Lot 2542. A fine and rare Ming blue and white 'dragon' dish, Zhengde four-character mark within double-circles and of the period (1505-1521); 8 3/8 in. (21.3 cm.) diam. Estimate HK$800,000 - HK$1,200,000 ($103,720 - $155,581). Price Realized HK$2,060,000 ($266,997). © Christie's Image Ltd 2008.

Finely potted with rounded sides and painted in vibrant inky-blue tones in the centre with a sinuous five-clawed dragon amidst a dense lotus meander, surrounded by two further dragons striding around the cavetto, repeated around the exterior above a ruyi band encircling the slightly tapered foot, all within double-line borders, box.

Note: Previously sold in Sotheby's Hong Kong, 28 October 1992, lot 41.

Both four and six-character marks were used on Imperial Zhengde porcelains, but it is not clear what the difference between the two types was. Examples similar to the present dish were invariably inscribed with four-character reign marks. Its imperial provenance is further substantiated by the inclusion of a dish of this design on the sixth scroll of the Imperial collection of Yongzheng, the Guwan Tu, Scroll of Antiquities, dated to the sixth year of his reign (1728), now preserved in the Percival David Foundation, London.

A Zhengde dish of similar design but slightly smaller in size in the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (II), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000, p. 68, pl. 63. Another similar Zhengde-marked dish is in the Shanghai Museum, published in Wang Qingzheng, Underglaze Blue and Red, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 116.

Christie's. Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. 3 December 2008. Hong Kong.