Lot 3709. A wucai 'dragon and phoenix' dish, mark and period of Kangxi (1662-1722);  25.3 cm., 10 in. Estimate  250,000 — 300,000 HKD (28,739 — 34,487 EUR). Lot sold 325,000 HKD (37,361 EUR). Photo Sotheby's.

sturdily potted with shallow curved sides rising from a short tapered foot to an everted rim, vibrantly painted on the interior with a pair of dragons, one red and the other yellow and a pair of phoenix encircling a pale blue lotus flower, the cavetto further decorated with a striding green dragon opposite a greyish brown dragon and a pair of phoenix, all reserved on a leafy lotus flower ground, the exterior similarly decorated with dragons and phoenix, the underside inscribed with a six-character reign mark in underglaze blue within a double-circle.

Note: Compare a similar but slightly larger dish, from a Swedish private collection, recently sold in our London rooms, 13th May 2015, lot 138. Other dishes with the same composition have been included in the O.C.S. exhibition, The Animal in Chinese Art, London, 1968, cat. no. 116;  in The Tsui Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1991, cat. no. 102; and a third in John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, cat. no. 192.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 07 oct. 2015