Lot 204. A fine and very rare blue and white 'dragon' bowl, Mark and period of Zhengde (1506-1521), 20.3 cm., 8 in. Estimate 4,500,000 — 6,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 6,280,000 HKD. Photo: Sotheby's

finely potted with deep rounded sides gently outcurving at the flared rim, painted in soft underglaze blue tones outlined by precise darker penciling, the interior with a medallion enclosing a scaly five-clawed dragon leaping amidst scrolling lotus, repeated as a frieze around the well with a pair of  long-bodied striding dragons and around the exterior, all supported on a short straight foot encircled with a ruyi-head band, the base with a four-character mark within a double circle.

Provenance: The Su Lin An Collection. 
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 31st October 1995, lot 319.

Bibliography: Sotheby's Thirty Years in Hong Kong: 1973-2003, Hong Kong, 2003, no. 253.  

Note: This dragon and lotus design, which goes back to older models was one of the favourite designs of the Zhengde Emperor. It can be found on dishes, stembowls and spitoons of the period but are rare on bowls. An almost identical bowl in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Minji meihin zuroku, vol. II, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 91; and a much smaller bowl of this form and design, excavated from the waste heaps of the Ming imperial kilns at Jingdezhen was included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain: Recent Discoveries of  Jingdezhen Ware, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1995, cat.no. 172.

Blue-and-white Zhengde wares, the exterior boldly painted with similar dragon and lotus design but the interior decorated with a single dragon leaping amid lotus within a double circle, were also made with the Zhengde reign mark written in the rare Tibetan Pagspa script.

For the inspiration of this bowl see a Xuande prototype illustrated in Minji meihin zuroku, vol.I, Tokyo, 1977, pl. 67.   

Sotheby's. A Quest for Perfection - Important Chinese Porcelain from a Distinguished Asian Family Hong Kong, 23 oct. 2005