A rare large blue and white dragon dish. Qianlong seal mark in underglaze blue and of the petiod  (1736-1795)

With rounded sides rising to a slightly everted rim, the interior well painted with a ferocious horned five-clawed dragon shown full face and with wings spread as it leaps amidst composite foliate meander in pursuit of a flaming pearl, with two dragons striding amidst further composite foliate meander in a band below a border of wind-tossed waves, the exterior decorated in similar fashion with two striding dragons amidst a similar foliate scroll. 20 in. (50.8 cm.) diam., box  - Estimate: $150,000 - $200,000 - Adjugé: 134 500 USD

Provenance : Sotheby's, New York, 23 October 1976, lot 325.
Property from the Estate of Alice Brooke McReynolds; Sotheby's, New York, 22 March 2000, lot 133.

Notes: Large dishes of this particular design, painted in the center with a powerful and ferocious front-facing, winged dragon, first appeared during the reign of the Yongzheng emperor, however the prototype for these dishes may be found in porcelains of the Ming dynasty. For a Xuande period example (19.3 cm. diam.) painted with a central dragon amidst a floral scroll beneath two dragons in profile in the cavetto, see A. D. Brankston, Early Ming Wares of Chingtechen, 1938, pl. 21a.
A large Qianlong-marked dish of this type, and of similar size (50.5 cm. diam.), is illustrated by A. du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, New Jersey, 1984, p. 203. Another Qianlong-marked dish of this type, also of similar size (51 cm. diam.) was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 2 May 1994, lot 657.

Christie's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. 17 September 2008. New York, Rockefeller Plaza. www.christies.com