Lot 3717. A rare blue and white 'dragon' dish, Mark and period of Longqing (1567-1572). Estimate 300,000 — 400,000 HKD. Lot sold 625,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's.

the shallow dish decorated on the interior with a double-circle medallion enclosing an en face five-clawed scaly dragon amidst ruyi clouds and flames, the exterior with a pair of dragons soaring through cloud swirls and chasing a 'flaming pearl', the base with a six character mark within a double-circle; 17.1 cm, 6 3/4  in.

Provenance: Christie's New York, 19th September 1996, lot 269.

Notes: Surviving Longqing dishes decorated in underglaze blue with a dragon are very rare, and the design on the present piece is particularly notable for its front-facing dragon, as the creatures were more commonly depicted side-facing. Porcelain wares made during the brief six-year reign of the Longqing emperor are known to have followed closely in the style of the preceding Jiajing reign. They were made in small quantity and those which bear the imperial reign mark are even rarer. Dishes painted with dynamic five-clawed dragons are more commonly known decorated in the wucai palette; see for example a Longqing mark and period dish with a pair of dragons, in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall,Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 10:8; one in the Chang Foundation, published in Selected Chinese Ceramics from Han to Qing Dynasties, Taiwan, 1990, pl. 103; and another in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, illustrated in Imperial Overglaze-Enamelled Wares in the Late Ming Dynasty, Tokyo, 1995, pl. 16.

Dish with dragons chasing flaming pearls, Ming dynasty, Longqing reign (1567-1572). Porcelain dish with rounded sides and straight rim. There are two confronted dragons with a flaming pearl and clouds in Wucai style underglaze blue and overglaze red, yellow and green enamel in the centre of the interior, and double lines in red enamel on the foot and both sides of the rim. There is a mark in underglaze blue on the base. Height: 60 millimetres. Diameter: 331 millimetres. Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, PDF 798 © Trustees of the British Museum.