An unusual Dehua 'Gaming' group, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Estimate $7,000 – $9,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2015

The group is modeled to depict three Chinese men dressed in robes and conical hats standing in animated postures engaging in an argument while an attendant picks up coins and game pieces on the floor, all raised on a shaped pedestal, molded with a panel enclosing a dragon pursuing a flaming pearl, and with a French gilt-bronze mount. 5 5/8 in. (13 cm.) high

Provenance: The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York.

Notes: A similar Dehua figural group of comparable size is in the Walter Bondy Collection, Berlin, and is illustrated inDeutsche und Franzo¨sische Meister des XIX und XX Jahrhunderts gema¨lde, Berlin, pl. XXI, no. 257. 

Compare, also, a smaller Dehua figural group of the same subject illustrated in Chinese Export Porcelain including Figures from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gill, The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, 2002, p. 19, no. 5.

Christie's. FINE CHINESE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART, 17 - 18 September 2015, New York, Rockefeller Plaza