each finely potted with ogee sides rising from a short foot, the interior painted with a central medallion enclosing a five-clawed dragon writhing sinuously amidst flames, the exterior with a pair of dragons, one with head turned backwards looking towards the other, striding amidst flames and ruyi-shaped cloud swirls, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark within a double circle.

Note: It is extremely rare to find a pair of such bowls from the Yongzheng period. However, a closely related pair of bowls was included in the exhibition Ch’ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Art Gallery, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1973, cat. no. 59. For single examples, see one, in the Scheinman Collection, illustrated in Born of Earth and Fire, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 1992, cat. no. 88, and sold at Christie’s New York, 23rd March 1995, lot 115; another from the Rolf Heiniger Collection, sold in our London rooms, 9th November 2005, lot 318; and one sold twice in these rooms, 5th November 1996, lot 811, and 5th October 2016, lot 3695.

A fine blue and white 'dragon' ogee bowl, Mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 16.9 cm, 6 5/8  in. Sold for 625,000 HKD at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 5th October 2016, lot 3695. Photo Sotheby's.

 Cf. my post: A fine blue and white 'dragon' ogee bowl, Mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735)

The dragon on the present piece has been rendered in a Ming style, and its placement against a plain white ground, sometimes interspersed with clouds or scrolls, appears to have been a motif that gained popularity from its inception in the Xuande period; for example see a meiping, with a Xuande reign mark and of the period, included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1989, cat. no. 88. Later designs that were probably inspired by the Xuande original include two related Wanli mark and period meiping, in the Shanghai Museum, Shanghai, illustrated in Lu Minghua, Mingdai guanyo ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pls 3-97 and 3-98; another was sold in our London rooms, 13th May 2015, lot 118; and an ovoid jar with cover, with a Kangxi mark and of the period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Porcelains from the Qing dynasty imperial kilns in the Palace Museum collection], vol. 1, pt. I, Beijing, 2005, pl. 45.