Lot 105. A rare blue and white yellow-enamelled 'dragon' bowl, Kangxi six-character mark and of the period (1662-1722); 13cm (5 1/8in) diam. Estimate: £20,000 - £30,000. Sold for £ 25,062 (€ 28,447). © Bonhams 2001-2019

The bowl finely potted with deep rounded sides rising from a tapered foot to an everted rim, the interior centred with a medallion enclosing a five-clawed dragon picked out in blue on a yellow ground, the exterior similarly decorated with a pair of sinuous dragons striding through flames above overlapping lotus petals, each alternating with a lingzhispray supporting a cinquefoil cartouche enclosing respectively the shou and fu characters. 

Provenance: Christie's New York, 20 September 2005, lot 322
An English private collection. 

Note: The decorative scheme employed on the present bowl appears to have derived from the Imperial porcelain wares manufactured during the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty; see for example a blue and white bowl, Jiajing mark and period, decorated with two scaly dragons alternating with lingzhi sprays framing the shou and fu characters, which was sold at Sotheby's New York, 23 March 2011, lot 721.

Compare with a similarly decorated blue and white and yellow-ground bowl, Kangxi mark and period, in the Nanjing Museum, Jiangxu Province, illustrated by Huping Hsu, Treasures in the Royalty: The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 71. Another example, Kangxi mark and period, in the collection of the Provincial Museum, Jiangxi Province, is illustrated by Tie Yuan, The Complete Collection of Porcelain of Jiangxi Province: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2005, vol.1, p.89.

A closely related blue and white and yellow-ground 'dragon' bowl, Kangxi mark and period, decorated with shou and fu characters, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7 October 2015, lot 3724.

A fine yellow-ground blue and white 'Dragon' bowl, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722);  13.1 cm., 5 1/8  in. Sold for 475,000 HKD (93,402 EUR) at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7 October 2015, lot 3724. Photo: Sotheby's

Cf. my post: A fine yellow-ground blue and white 'Dragon' bowl, Mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722)

Bonhams. Fine Chinese Art, London, 16 May 2019