Lot 3684. Property from the Houlezhai Collection. A blue and white 'dragon' dish, Mark and period of Zhengde (1506-1521); 17.4 cm. Lot Sold 1,651,000 HKD (Estimate 500,000 - 1,000,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2025

Provenance: Collection of TT Tsui (1940-2010), Jingguantang Collection.
Christie's New York, 20th March 1997, lot 72.
Christie's Hong Kong, 31st May 2010, lot 1988.

Exhibited: Gems of Chinese Art: Selection of Ceramics and Bronze from The Tsui Art Foundation , The Empress Place Museum, Singapore, 1992, cat. no. 82.

Note: For the inspiration of this form and design, see the prototype from the reigns of Hongwu and Yongle, illustrated together in Geng Baochang,  Ming Qing ciqi jianding , Beijing, 1993, figs 6 and 7; and another Yongle dish was sold in these rooms, 5th November 1997, lot 1366. Other dishes of this type from the Xuande reign (1426-1435) include one illustrated in  Ming and Ch'ing Porcelain from the TY Chao Family Foundation , Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1978, cat. no. 15, later sold in these rooms, 1st November 1999, lot 313; and another two examples, one with a straight instead of a flared rim, in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall,  Ming Ceramics , London, 2001, pls 4:34,35. 

See another related Xuande dish with the same design, but with two phoenix on the exterior, in the National Palace Museum, Tapei, illustrated in the  Special Exhibition of Selected Hsuan-Te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty , Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 191. A Hongzhi example of this dish is illustrated in Sir Harry Garner,  Oriental Blue and White , 1973, pl. 39C and D.  

It is rare to find a dish of this design and fine quality bearing a Zhengde mark. Compare a Zhengde dish of similar design illustrated in the Blue and White Wares of the Ming Dynasty , National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1963, vol. IV, pl. 11; a larger example (22.4 cm), formerly in the family collection of JM Hu, sold twice at auctions, first in our New York rooms, 4th June 1985, lot 5, and again in these rooms, 8th April 2011, lot 3200; and another dish of this size from the collection of Au Bak Ling, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26th September 2024, lot 7.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 7 May 2025