Lot 33. A fine copper-red decorated 'dragon' bowl, Mark and period of Kangxi (1622-1722); 14.6 cm, 5 3/4 in. Estimate 1,000,000-1,500,000 HKD. Lot sold 1,820,000 HKD (233,834 USD). Photo Sotheby's

raised on a slightly tapered foot, the exterior finely painted with five evenly spaced dragon medallions each in the form of a coiled scaly five-clawed dragon, all below a slightly everted rim, the interior centred with a further dragon medallion, the base inscribed with a six-character underglaze-blue reign mark within double rings. 

Exhibited: Evolution to Perfection. Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection/Evolution vers la perfection. Céramiques de Chine de la Collection Meiyintang, Sporting d'Hiver, Monte Carlo, 1996, cat. no. 145

Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 2, no. 732.

Note: For another Kangxi bowl of this shape, design and size, in the Baur collection, Geneva, see John Ayers, The Baur Collection Geneva: Chinese Ceramics, Geneva, 1968-74, vol. 4, no. A 530; and a similar pair of bowls from the Edward T. Chow and J.M. Hu collections, illustrated in Helen D. Ling and E.T. Chow, Collection of Chinese Ceramics from the Pavilion of Ephemeral Attainment, Hong Kong, 1950, vol. II, pl. 84, was sold in our New York rooms, 4th June 1985, lot 22. For a smaller bowl of this design in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, see T. Arapova, Chinese Porcelains in the Hermitage Collection, Leningrad, 1977, pl. 193; and for a smaller corresponding pair, one with dragons, the other with phoenix, in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, see Qing Kang Yong Qian ming ci tezhan/Catalog of the Special Exhibition of K'ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch'ing Dynasty in the National Museum Palace (sic), National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1986, cat. no. 7.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part II - An Important Selection of Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong 5 october 2011