Lot 924. Property from the Dawentang Collection. A superb and exceptionally rare copper-red-decorated and blue and white 'Dragon' moonflask, Qianlong six-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1736-1795); 32 cm high. Price realised HKD 4,445,000 (Estimate HKD 3,500,000 – HKD 5,000,000) © Christie's Images Ltd 2026

Provenance: Sold at Sotheby’s London, 12 June 1990, lot 305

Sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 8 October 2006, lot 1063

Literature: Tina Yee-wan Pang, A Passion for Collecting: The Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, Orientations, vol. 43, January- February 2012, p.50

Chinese Ceramics from the Dawentang Collection, Vol. II, Hong Kong, 2019, pp. 486-489, no. 91

Exhibited: The Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, Divine Power: The Dragon in Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 11 February – 31 October 2012, cat. p.109

Hong Kong Museum of Art, Honouring Tradition and Heritage: Min Chiu Society at Sixty, Hong Kong, 18 December 2020 – 28 April 2021, cat. no. 135

Note : Each side of the vase is decorated in vibrant copper-red tones with a dragon leaping in pursuit of a copper-red flaming pearl amidst blue clouds and above a band of wind-tossed waves, and a pair of arched handles painted with classic scroll flanks the cylindrical neck.

This type of moonflask is also known as ‘ma gua ping’. According to Qing court archives, on the 8th day of the 4th month of the Qianlong 7th year (1742), ‘court official Hai Wang received an order to make a few ma gua ping with copper-red dragons and underglaze-blue clouds over a white ground, to be passed on to Tang Ying in Jiangxi’. The present moonflask may be one of those recorded flasks.

Compare to a very similar Qianlong moonflask from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III) , Hong Kong, 2000, no. 213 (fig. 1); a larger one was exhibited in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, illustrated in The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1994, no. 66; one from the collection of Gerald Reitlinger, illustrated by Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1971, P. XCIV, fig. 1.

Compare to a larger flask of the same form and design, sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 3 November 1996, lot 776; and one sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 7 April 2009, lot 1605.

Christie's. Pearls of The Orient - Treasures from Hong Kong Private Collectors, Hong Kong, 40 April 2026