A fine blue and white bowl with phoenix roundels. Mark and period of Kangxi - Photo Sotheby's  

delicately potted, the deep rounded sides rising from a straight foot to an everted rim, painted on the exterior in shades of underglaze blue with five finely executed phoenix medallions, each depicting a bird with head turned in the opposite direction of the long wavy tail, its wings spread, and legs thinly pencilled, the interior centred with a conforming phoenix medallion, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark within a double ring in underglaze blue; 9.2 cm., 3 5/8 in. Estimation: 1,000,000 - 1,500,000 HKD

LITTERATURE: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1708.

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: A cup of this design in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is published in Chen Runmin, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai ciqi lei xuan [Qing porcelains from the Palace Museum Collection Selected by Type], vol. 1: Qing Shunzhi Kangxi chao qinghua ci [Blue-and-white porcelain of the Shunzhi and Kangxi reigns of the Qing], Beijing, 2005, pl. 158, together with one with dragon medallions, pl. 157; and a similar pair of cups was included in the Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Ceramics, Kau Chi Society of Chinese Art at The Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1981-2, cat. no. 111. The design is also known in underglaze red; compare a cup with red phoenix roundels and a companion piece with dragon roundels, both included in the exhibition Qing Kang Yong Qian ming ci tezhan/Catalog of the Special Exhibition of K’ang-hsi, Yung-cheng and Ch’ien-lung Porcelain Ware from the Ch’ing Dynasty in the National Museum Palace (sic), Taipei, 1986, cat. no. 7.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part IV - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong | 09 oct. 2012 www.sothebys.com