Lot 111. A blue-ground mallet-shaped 'dragon' vase, underglaze-blue Chenghua six-character mark within a double circle, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 8 1/8 in. (20.2 cm.) high. Estimate GBP 5,000 - GBP 7,000. Price realised GBP 5,975. © Christie's Images Ltd 2004

'Pencilled' in deep cobalt blue around the base of the neck with a three-clawed archaistic dragon above rockwork and breaking waves around the base, all on a light cobalt-blue ground stopping neatly above the foot rim, the interior and base glazed white. 

Provenance: E. T. Hall Collection, no. 316. 

Note: The decoration on this vase is first painted on the body with underglaze blue then covered with a thin layer of cobalt blue glaze. Compare a guanyinzun vase decorated in the same technique and also bearing a Chenghua mark in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Ware from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 63, pp. 96-97.

Christie's. Chinese Monochrome Porcelain from the Collection of the late E. T. Hall, London, 7 June 2004