A rare yellow-ground wucai ‘Dragon’ dish, Kangxi mark and period. Photo Sotheby's

the shallow rounded sides rising from a short tapered foot, painted to the interior with a central medallion enclosing a pair of blue and white five-clawed dragons writhing amongst flame wisps contesting a flaming pearl, the exterior decorated with four cranes in flight alternating with ruyi cloud scrolls, all reserved on an egg-yolk yellow round, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark within a double-circle, 14.3cm., 5 5/8 in. Estimation 20,000 — 30,000 GBP

A closely related pair of dishes was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Ch’ing Polychrome Porcelain, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1977, cat. no. 35; and another pair was exhibited in Ch’ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Art Gallery, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1973, cat. no 46. Further related dishes include a pair sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 18th May 1988, lot 298; a single dish sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 13th November 1990, lot 352; and another pair sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28th April 1997, lot 794. See also a white-ground dish decorated with this motif, sold in our New York rooms 18thJune 2013, lot 16.

This design of two five-clawed dragons chasing a flaming pearl originated in the Ming Dynasty; compare a Wanli mark and period dish illustrated in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 284.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. London, 14 mai 2014 -http://www.sothebys.com/