A large celadon-glazed 'dragon' charger. Seal mark and period of Yongzheng. Photo: Courtesy Sotheby's

the interior finely carved and moulded with a three-clawed qilong dragon writhing amid cloud scrolls within a central medallion, the cavetto left undecorated, the exterior with overlapping upright lotus petals in Longquan-style, covered overall with an evenly-applied glossy soft blue-green glaze, the base inscribed with the six-character seal mark in underglaze-blue - 49.5 cm., 19 1/2 in - Lot Sold: 740,000 HKD

NOTE: A Yongzheng dish of this pattern in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. is illustrated in Michel Beurdeley and Guy Raindre (ed.), Qing Porcelain, London, 1987, pl. 231; another is published in The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1991, pl. 125; one from the T.Y. Chao collection, included in the exhibition Ming and Ch'ing Porcelain, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1978, cat.no. 46, was sold in these rooms, 19^th May 1987, lot 286; and another sold in these rooms, 10th April 2006, lot 1605.

For the original inspiration of this design compare two Longquan celadon dishes, similarly carved with dragons amongst clouds, in the Kunst Museum Collection, Dusseldorf, included in the exhibition Chinesische Keramik, Kunst Museum, Dusseldorf, 1965, cat.nos. 86 and 88. John Ayers in The Baur Collection. Geneva, vol. 3, Geneva, 1972, p. 10 and pl. A360, discusses the group of very finely made wares with Yongzheng reign marks and pale celadon glazes 'evidently inspired by the light bluish-green kinuta-type glazes' of the Longquan wares 'of the twelfth-thirteenth centuries'. He notes that the List of Porcelains Supplied to the Court compiled by the future director of the factory, Tang Ying, in 1729, included reproduction of Longquan glazes, both pale and deep, as seen on the present piece.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics & Works of Art. 08 Oct 08. Hong Kong - www.sothebys.com