A rare pair of anhua-decorated white-glazed bowls. Hongzhi underglaze-blue six-character marks and of the period (1488-1505). Photo Christies Ltd 2011

Each bowl with gently rounded walls rising from a tapering foot and ending on a slightly everted lip, the sides incised under the even white glaze with two long-bodied scaly dragons in pursuit of the flaming pearl; 4¾ in. (12 cm.) diam., wood stands (2). Estimate £40,000 - £60,000 ($66,840 - $100,260)

The property of a private English collection

Notes: Bowls from the Hongzhi period with similar shape and glaze to the current lot are generally undecorated and larger in size, such as one in the Palace Museum, Taipei illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 114, no. 104.; and the one sold in these rooms, 16 November 1999, lot 202. Smaller bowls in pairs are therefore quite rare.

Moreover, the decoration on this pair of bowls also makes this particular lot interesting. The style of the anhua dragons are akin to those incised on the biscuit of Ming bowls also from the Hongzhi period. Compare for example a rare biscuit-decorated white-glazed Hongzhi bowl illustrated by J.Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol.I, Geneva, 1999, p. 121, no. 68 (A146); and one sold in our New York rooms, 16 September 2010, lot 1363.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art , 10 May 2011. London, King Street www.christies.com