Lot 2116. A fine wucai 'Dragon and Phoenix' bowl, Kangxi six-character mark within double circles and of the period (1662-1722); 5 1/8 in. (13.1 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 700,000 - HKD 1,000,000. Price realised HKD 1,050,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2013

The bowl is well potted with curved sides rising to a flared rim. The exterior is finely detailed in underglaze-blue and wucai enamels with a pair of five-clawed, striding dragons, each in pursuit of a 'flaming pearl', one in red enamel with a flowing green mane, and the other green, with a blue mane. The dragons are divided by phoenix, swooping downwards with wings spread and tails fanned, all against a ground of chrysanthemum and convovulous. The rim is encircled by a band containing the Buddhist Emblems alternating with stylised double-ruyi heads. The well is painted with a dragon chasing a 'flaming pearl', box.

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby's Chester, 8 July 1987
A European private collection formed in the 1980s and 1990s.

Note: A slightly larger Kangxi bowl of the same pattern is illustrated in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Beijing, 1999, p. 148, no. 136. A Kangxi-marked bowl of this pattern in the collection of the Nanjing Museum is illustrated by Xu Huping, The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 86. Compare, also, to the pair of similar bowls included in the Hong Kong Oriental Ceramic Society, Exhibition of Ch'ing Polychrome Porcelain, 1979, illustrated in the Catalogue, no. 32. 

Christie's. Imperial Sale; Important Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, 29 May 2013, Hong Kong, HKCEC Grand Hall