Lot 3107 A rare small blue and white ovoid 'dragon' vase, mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 13 cm., 5 1/8 in. Estimate 2,200,000 — 2,800,000 HKD. Lot Sold 2,660,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's

of slighly compressed globular form narrowing at the short neck and mouth, painted in bright cobalt blue with two archaistic dragons, each with hooked claws and curling bifurcated tail, between double-line borders and a single line at the mouth, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark in double-circle.

Note: Yongzheng jars of this form and design are rare; a closely related example of slightly larger dimensions, from the J.M. Hu Family collection, was sold in our New York rooms, 4th June 1985, lot 24; and another with a cover in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Qingdai yuyao ciqi, vol. 1, pt. II, Beijing, 2005, pl. 37, together with a jar of this form but decorated with fruit and flower sprays, pl. 38.

Almost abstract in form, the archaistic scrolling style of the dragon on the present vase is inspired by highly stylised phoenix designs that adorned mallet vases of the Kangxi period; for example see one in the Meiyintang collection illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, pl. 754. Compare also a Yongzheng waterpot enamelled in iron red with two dragons of this type, with a reign mark and of the period, from the Edward T. Chow collection, sold twice in these rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 127, and 28th April 1998, lot 813.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, Hong Kong, 08 april 2011