Lot 3177. A large green and aubergine yellow ground 'dragon' charger, mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722); 41 cm., 16 1/8 in. Estimate 500,000 — 700,000 HKD. Lot Sold 920,000 HKD. Courtesy Sotheby's.

incised with two confronting dragons centred on a 'flaming pearl', bordered with various flowering plants in the cavetto including lotus, prunus, chrysanthemum and peony, the rim with a band of dragons striding through the flames, the underside with four further striding dragons below cranes and trailing clouds, all picked out in tones of green, aubergine and white outlined in black on a bright yellow ground.

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 18th May 1988, lot 301.

Note:A similar charger, from the Hartog collection was included in the exhibition Tausend Jahre Chinesische Keramik, Museum fur Kunst unde Gewerbe, Hamburg, 1974, cat. no. 144; and another, formerly in the collection of Captain C. Oswald Liddell and later in the Tsui Museum of Art, was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 5th November 1997, lot 878. Compare also a closely related example sold in our New York rooms, 17th March 2009, lot 117, acquired from a German dealer before 1924, and thence by descent in the collection of Eva Lande.

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