Lot 30. A rare wucai ''dragon and phoenix' bowl, Mark and period of Jiajing (1522-1566); 11.4 cm., 4 1/2 in. Estimation 1,200,000-1,500,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,460,000 HKD . Photo Sotheby's

the steep rounded sides supported on a low foot brightly painted with a four-clawed dragon striding through colourful clouds, and a phoenix with a long serrated tail, separated by star-shaped clouds, the interior with a similar polychrome star motif in the centre, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark in underglaze blue within a double circle.

PROVENANCE: Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Clark (died 1976).
Collection of R.H.R. Palmer (until 1962).
Sotheby's London, 27th November 1962, lot 40.
Estate of Neil F. Phillips, Esq. Q.C.
Christie's New York, 16th September 1999, lot 311.
Eskenazi Ltd, London.

LITTERATURE: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1701.

NOTE: The dragon-and-phoenix design in the wucai palette was perhaps the most popular pattern of the Wanli period (AD 1573-1620) and the present bowl would seem to be a classic late Ming artefact, but the style was still rare in the Jiajing reign (AD 1522-66). Comparable examples are hard to find and this bowl may be unique. The bowl is remarkable for its delicate painting manner, rarely found among wucai examples, where a much bolder handling of the
brush is more characteristic; compare, for example, the dragon-and-phoenix design on the Wanli brush tray in this collection, lot 33.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part III - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains, Hong Kong | 04 avr. 2012