Lot 857. Two blue and white metal-mounted bottle vases, Kangxi period (1662-1722). Estimate USD 3,000 - USD 5,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

The larger vase is decorated with two dragons chasing flaming pearls amidst flames and clouds, below various decorative borders. The smaller vase is decorated with stylized flowers, below flower sprigs on the neck. Both vases have silver mounts on the mouths and upper portions of the neck. 10 ¼ and 9 7/8 in. (25.9 and 25.1 cm.) high, the mounts of the smaller vase with 'd.g' control mark, Dutch, 19th century

Provenance: Samuel Putnam Avery Sr. (1822-1904) Collection, New York. 
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accessioned in 1879.

Notes: A blue and white Kangxi-period kendi with stylistically similar metal mounts is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated by Wang Jianhua in The Porcelain of Jingdezhen Civilian Kiln of Qing Dynasty in the Collection of the Palace Museum, vol. 1, Beijing, 2014, pp. 248-9, no. 96.

Christie's. Collected in America: Chinese Ceramics from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15 September 2016, New York, Rockefeller Plaza