A fine and rare pink-ground small Bowl and Cover. Qianlong seal marks and period

The bowl with delicately curved sides rising to an everted rim, well-painted on the exterior with a striding five-clawed dragon and phoenix in puce enamel, their eyes picked out in black, surrounded by blue clouds, above a band of stylized ruyi-head lappets, all against a pink ground incised with feathery scrollwork, atop a straight foot accented with a band of blue circles, the interior glazed white, the domed cover repeating the design of the bowl, centered by a flaring stem knop, with gilt rims and foot, iron-red seal marks against turquoise grounds at the foot and knop (2) - overall height 3 1/4 in., 8.3 cm diameter of bowl 4 in., 10.2 cm - Estimate: 40,000—60,000 USD

PROVENANCE : Sotheby's New York, 23rd and 24th April 1975, lot 342.
Thereafter with the present owner.

NOTE : The present bowl and cover belongs to a special group of wares where the design is reserved on a monochrome enamel ground, incised with fine needle-point etching of endless scrolling fronds. No other similar example appears to be recorded, although the same technique was used on a bowl decorated with a landscape design within reserved panels on a similar yellow-ground. This complicated and laborious decorative technique was developed in the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen under the direction of Superintendent Tang Ying only during the Qianlong period. Tang Ying's exceptional talent for design combined with the high level of technical achievement at the kilns made the manufacturing of such outstanding pieces possible. See also a famille-rose bowl and cover with the design of archaistic dragons on a similar etched pink-ground, also with a Qianlong reign mark and of the period, illustrated in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 281.

The same decorative technique can be found on the famous revolving vase in the Shanghai Museum collection included in the exhibition Chugoku rekidai toji ten, Seibu Art Museum, Tokyo, 1984, cat. no. 98; and on the magnificent ruby-ground meiping decorated with exotic flowers in famille-rose enamels sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 31^st October 2004, lot 131.

For examples of blue-and-white wares painted in puce enamel see a meiping decorated with the motif of nine dragons chasing a flaming pearl amongst clouds, the dragons in similar puce colors, from the Qing court collection in Beijing published in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 230. Compare also a blue-and-white moonflask decorated with a large ferocious dragon in puce enamel, illustrated ibid., pl. 232.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art including Chinese and Japanese Art from The Collection of Frieda and Milton Rosenthal. 16 Sep 08. www.sotheby's.com