Lot 59. A green-enameled 'dragon' dish, Zhengde mark and period (1506-1521). Diameter 6 1/8  in., 15.6cm. Estimate $40,000–60,000. Lot Sold 50,000 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

with low rounded sides rising from a short tapered foot, finely carved in the biscuit and enameled in a bright translucent green, the interior with a sinuous five-clawed dragon striding amid clouds and flames, the exterior decorated with two further dragons against a ground of finely incised foaming waves, the base with a six-character mark within a double circle.

Note: Three similar dishes are in the British Museum, London, see Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pls 8:33-35. One in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-44; one from the collections of R.H.R. Palmer and Edward T. Chow, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Polychrome Porcelain of the Ming and Manchu Dynasties, London, 1950, cat. no. 77, sold in our London rooms, 27th November 1962, lot 18 and in our Hong Kong rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 37; a second dish from the Edward T. Chow collection sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 19th May 1981, lot 447; and a dish from the British Rail Pension Fund sold four times in our rooms in London 13th December 1966, lot 73; 1st July 1969, lot 149; and 17th November 1970, lot 76, and in Hong Kong 16th May 1989, lot 27.