Lot 1263. A green-glazed and iron-red-decorated underglaze blue-ground 'dragon' bowl, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1662-1722); 5½ in. (14 cm.) diam. Estimate USD 8,000 - USD 12,000. Price realised USD 43,750. © Christie's Images Ltd 2013 

The exterior is decorated with two dragons, one green, the other in iron red, striding amidst flames in pursuit of flaming pearls reserved on a blue wash ground above a band of overlapping petal tips. A related medallion is in the center of the interior. The fifth claw on each dragon is covered in black ename.

Provenance: Christie's New York, 1 June 1990, lot 287.

Note: Compare a similar bowl, which does not have the fifth claw obscured, illustrated in Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1987, Part I, no. 91, and another sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 September 1989, lot 599.

J. Ayers in the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1974, vol. I, mentions, discussing A555, that the fifth claw being concealed "was apparently required in circumstances where the piece was considered to be no longer destined for the Emperor's use."

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art, New York, 19 - 20 September 2013