A rare blue and white and yellow-enamelled ‘dragon’ bowl, Mark and period of Xianfeng. Estimate  80,000 — 120,000  HKD.  Lot sold. 225,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's.

with deep rounded sides rising from a slightly tapered foot to an everted rim, finely decorated around the exterior with two five-clawed yellow dragons striding among flames reaching for a ‘flaming pearl’, all reserved on a rich cobalt-blue ground, the interior similarly painted with a central medallion enclosing a yellow dragon writhing against blue clouds, the base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark; 10.4 cm., 4 1/8  in.

Provenance: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 22nd May 1985, lot 178.

Note: A bowl of this pattern with Xianfeng mark is illustrated in H.A. van Oort, Chinese Porcelain of the 19th and 20th Centuries, Lochem, the Netherlands, 1977, col. pl. 39.

Sotheby's. CHINESE ART. 01 JUNE 2015 - 02 JUNE 2015 | 3:15 PM HKT - HONG KONG