Lot 808. An incised yellow-ground green-enamelled 'dragon' bowl, Mark and period of Jiajing (1522-1566); 17.3 cm. Lot Sold 825,500 HKD (Estimate 500,000 - 1,000,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2025
 

potted with deep rounded sides rising from a tall foot to a gently flared rim, the exterior finely incised and enamelled in bright green with two five-clawed dragons striding amidst clouds in pursuit of flaming pearls, above a band of petal lappets and a single-line border encircling the foot, all reserved on a deep yellow ground, the interior and base left white, the latter inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within a double circle.
 

Provenance: Sotheby's Hong Kong, 13th November 1990, lot 147.
 

Note: The present bowl represents a pivotal moment in the Ming dynasty revival of the sancai (‘three colour’) palette. Initially developed in the Tang dynasty (618–907), the sancai palette of brown, yellow and green was first embraced out of necessity with most other glaze colours still yet to be developed in China. By the Jiajing reign, however, the embrace of this bold colour scheme was something quite different— turning to the past for inspiration but reinterpreting the colour scheme with a fresh sixteenth century flair, the present bowl exemplifies the creativity and skill of Ming potters in reappropriating the visual language of the past for new imperial patrons.

Compare a prototypical bowl of closely related design rendered in trailed slip, preserved in the British Museum, London (accession no. 1926,1124.1), illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 8:31, in which the author attributes the ‘Phags-pa inscription to its base to the Zhengde period (1506–1521); and other Jiajing bowls of this design, including one from the collections of Sir Frank A. Swettenham and K. R. Malcolm, illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Ming Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1953, pl. 90A, and rev. ed. 1988, pl. 169; a second in the Haags Gemeentemuseum, illustrated in Béatrice Janesen, Chinese ceramiek, Lochem, 1976, cat. no. 317; a third from the Edward T. Chow Collection, sold in these rooms, 25th November 1980, lot 38, and again from the collection of T.Y. Chao, 19th May 1987, lot 259; and a fourth included in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. II, London, 1994, pl. 696.
 

Sotheby's. Imperial Connoisseurship Treasures of Chinese Art from A Prestigious Collection, Hong Kong, 21 November 2025