Lot 2902. A fine and very rare white-glazed anhua-decorated ‘dragon’ bowl, Kangxi slip-decorated six-character seal mark and of the period (1662-1722); 3 5/8 in. (9.3 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 600,000 - HKD 800,000 (USD 77,039 - USD 102,718). Price realised HKD 1,000,000. © Christie's Images Ltd 2019.

The egg-shell thin bowl is decorated in slip on the interior with two scaly dragons amidst clouds. The centre of the interior is inscribed in slip with a Kangxi reign mark in seal script, box.

Provenance: Acquired in Hong Kong, 2011.

Note: This delicately potted bowl, with eggshell-thin walls and a lustrous, satiny glaze, is modelled after the highly coveted tianbai (sweet white) porcelains from the Yongle period. Kangxi white-glazed bowls with anhua ‘hidden’ decorations usually come in two forms: the first type with motifs decorated in slip, such as the current example; the second type with motifs incised onto the biscuit body. Slip-decorated examples appear to be much rarer, with very few pieces known, including a white-glazed wide bowl decorated with cloud motifs in slip, inscribed on the base with an underglaze-blue Kangxi mark, from the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 106; and another one sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 2 December 2015, lot 3194.

There are also examples of Kangxi white-glazed bowls with anhua dragons, but of incised decorations, such as a bowl incised with two dragons pursuing flaming pearls and with an underglaze-blue reign mark from the Baur Collection, illustrated by J. Ayers in the Baur Collection, vol. III, Geneva, 1972, no. A408; and one in the McElney Collection was included in the exhibition, Porcelain of the High Qing, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, 1983, no. 32.