Lot 119. A massive blue and white 'dragon' dish, Jiajing mark and period (1522-1566), 79 cm, 31 in. Estimation 60,000 — 80,000 GBP. Lot sold 75,000 GBP. Photo: Sotheby's

the rounded sides rising from a short tapering foot to a slightly everted rim, painted to the interior with two large scaly five-clawed dragons in mutual pursuit of a 'flaming pearl', all amidst fire scrolls and ruyi-shaped clouds, encircled at the well by a composite floral scroll and a cash band at the rim, the exterior with eight medallions each enclosing an Immortal and divided by rocks and ruyi-shaped clouds, the six-character mark written in a line to the exterior below the rim.

Provenance: Charlotte Horstmann and Gerald Godfrey Ltd., Hong Kong, 1st May 1989.

Note: This dish is striking for its immense size, which would have required considerable skill in its manufacture. The body is thickly potted to avoid warping in the kiln during firing, and the designs on the interior and exterior are carefully executed with each element playing an important role in balancing the entire composition.

Dishes of such large size were made in small numbers in the Jiajing reign, and were destined both for the court and for export to western Asia. A similar Jiajing mark and period dish of this type, but the well painted with a lotus scroll and the exterior with further dragons, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (II), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 120; one from the Huaihaitang collection, was included in the exhibition Enlightening Elegance. Imperial Porcelain of the Mid to Late Ming, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2012, cat. no. 21; and a third painted on the interior with a front-facing dragon, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. II, pl. 923. See also a dish of these proportions decorated with a dragon over a yellow ground, in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, included in the exhibition Seika jiki ten [Exhibition of blue and white porcelain from the Shanghai Museum], Matsuya Ginza, Tokyo, 1988, cat. no. 55; and another published in L. Reidemeister, Ming. Porzellane in Schwedischen Sammlungen [Ming. Porcelains in Swedish collections], Berlin, 1935, pl. 29. 

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Londres, 10 mai 2017, 02:00 PM