A doucai 'dragon and phoenix' plaque, Qing dynasty, 18th century
Lot 159. A doucai 'dragon and phoenix' plaque, Qing dynasty, 18th century. Diameter 31.8 cm, 12½ in. Estimate: 12,000 - 15,000 GBP. Lot sold 15,000 GBP. Photo Sotheby's
of flattened circular form, painted on one side with a sinuous leaping five-clawed dragon and a swooping phoenix in pursuit of a flaming pearl amidst flames and ruyi-shaped clouds, all within a stylised scroll border.
Note: The design on this little cup is based on a Ming dynasty Chenghua prototype, compare, for example, a doucai bowl excavated from the waste heaps of the Ming Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen, included in the exhibition A Legacy of Chenghua, the Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1993, cat. no. C119.
Compare also with a similar Yongzheng cup, sold in these rooms, 29th October 1991, lot 212, now in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Ye Peilang, Beauty of Ceramics: Gems of Doucai, vol. 6, Taipei, 1993, pl. 102. A pair of cups of this design from the collection of Edward T. Chow, was sold in these rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 132. Compare also with another cup of this size and design, sold in Sotheby's Hong Kong, 25th April 2004, lot 207.
Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, London, 06 Nov 2019