Lot 376. An extremely rare iron-red 'dragon' meiping, Qing dynasty, Yongzheng-Qianlong period (1723-1795). Height 13¼ in., 33.6 cm. Sold for 327,600 USD (Estimate 12,000 - 15,000 USD). © Sotheby's 2022

Note: This extremely rare meiping is spiritedly painted with ascending and descending dragons in iron-red enamel. Only one similar meiping is known, bearing a six-character Yongzheng mark, sold in our London rooms, 13th December 1977, lot 523 and illustrated in Giuseppe Eskenazi and Hajni Elias, A Dealer's Hand. The Chinese Art World Through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi, London, 2012, pl. 426. 

The unusual composition of the dragons, linked by their tails or claws, is reminiscent of a group of yellow-ground iron-red decorated bowls produced during the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods. For Yongzheng period examples, see one illustrated in Chinese Porcelain in the S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1987, cat. no. 102, with a panoramic view of the five dragons, vol. II, p. 146; and another included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Iron in the Fire, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1988, cat. no. 80. Qianlong period examples are held in important museums worldwide, including one in the Palace Museum, Beijing (accession no. Gu 152688), illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong: Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 15; another in the Nanjing Museum, included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Nanjing Museum and Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 84; and a further bowl in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (accession no. CIRC.1355-1926), illustrated in Rose Kerr, Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1986, p. 49, fig. 27.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 21 september 2022