A blue, copper-red and celadon-glazed carved beaker vase, gu, Kangxi. Photo courtesy Bonhams.

The details carved and highlighted in celadon contrasting with cobalt-blue and copper-red, the projecting mid-section painted with two striding chilong dragons divided by a lingzhi fungus spray, below the tall trumpet neck, decorated with a lone fisherman on a sampan in a mountainous river landscape with a pagoda below pine, and above the spreading foot similarly painted with a fisherman in a sampan. 43.5cm (17⅛in) high. Estimate £25,000 - 35,000 (€30,000 - 42,000). Unsold

Provenance: Prof. Max Esterer, Germany.
Sold in these rooms, 11 November 2010, lot 309

Professor Esterer spent 17 years in China between the First World War and the Second Sino-Japanese War. During his stay in China he is said to have befriended Chiang Kai Shek, who on the former's return to Germany sent him tea to Bavaria for the next ten years.

For a related underglaze blue, copper-red and celadon-glazed gu vase, Kangxi mark and of the period, similarly painted with striding chilong, from the Qing Court Collection, see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), Hong Kong, 2000, pl.219.

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART. London, New Bond Street. 7 Nov 2013 - www.bonhams.com