Lot 15. A blue and white 'carp and dragon' bottle vase, Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Height 42.2 cm, 16⅝ in.. Lot sold 81,900 GBP (Estimate : 30,000 - 50,000 GBP). © Sotheby's 2022

Provenance: The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York.

An American Private Collection.

Literature: The Chinese Porcelain Company. A Dealer's Record, 1985-2000, New York, 2000.

Note: Elegantly potted with a long thin neck and attractive globular body, this vase is impressive for its dynamic design which was executed in a confident painterly manner, reminiscent of contemporaneous paintings and woodblock printed illustrations. A jar painted with a related motif in cartouches attributed to the Kangxi period, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Compendium of Collections in the Palace Museum. Ceramics, vol. 21, Shunzhi and Kangxi Periods of Qing Dynasty, Beijing, 2012, pl. 139; and a dish, with a Kangxi mark and of the period, in the Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, is published in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pl. 84. See also a pear-shaped vase painted with a carp disposing of a pagoda through its mouth, in the Museum of Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, illustrated in Jan Wirgin, ‘K’ang-hsi Porcelain’, B.M.F.E.A., no. 45, 1974, pl. II.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, London, 11 May 2022