Lot 212. A blue and white 'Dragon' zhadou, Mark and period of Zhengde (1506-1521); diameter 14.6 cm., 5 3/4  in. Estimate 300,000 — 500,000 HKD. Lot sold 750,000  HKD. Photo: Sotheby's.

well potted with a rounded lower body supported on a splayed foot, rising to a wide flared neck, freely painted around the exterior in deft strokes of cobalt blue with two five-clawed dragons writhing among lotus flowers borne on a continuous meander, each with bulging eyes, wide open jaws and a powerful scaly body, above a border ofruyi around the foot and between double-line borders at the footrim and mouth, the interior similarly decorated with a fierce sinuous dragon among lotus, the base inscribed with a four-character reign mark

Provenance: The Estate of Ira and Nancy Koger. 
Christie's New York, 19th September 2006, lot 245.

Note: This dragon-and-lotus design is one of the most characteristic decorative motifs of Zhengde imperial porcelains, adorning dishes, bowls, stem bowls and vases. The proliferation of this design suggests that it was almost the official pattern of the period.

 A closely related example in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Minji meihin zuroku, Tokyo, 1977, vol. 2, pl. 92; one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is included in Zhongguo taoci quanji, vol. 12, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 147; another from the Sir Percival David collection and now in the British Museum, London, is included in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s Great Collections, Tokyo, 1982, pl. 124; and a fourth zhadou from the Meiyintang collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, pl. 686, was sold at Christie’s London, 5thApril 1976, lot 161, and again in these rooms, 7th April 2011, lot 60. A similar piece from the collections of L.F. Hay, H.M. Knight, and Frederick Knight, included in the exhibitionOosterse Schatten. 4000 Jaar Aziatische Kunst, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1954, cat. no. 247, was sold three times in our rooms, in London, 16th June 1939, lot 99, in Hong Kong, 18th May 1982, lot 30, and in New York, 15th June 1983, lot 278.

Sotheby's. Important Ming Porcelain from a Private Collection. Hong Kong, 08 oct. 2013.