Lot 176. A doucai 'dragon' bowl and cover, Yongzheng mark and period (1723-1735). Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 GBP. Lot sold 106,250 GBP. Photo Sotheby's.

of conical form, the flared sides rising from a short straight foot to three notches around the rim, brightly enamelled around the exterior with two five-clawed dragons in pursuit of a 'flaming pearl', leaping amidst mutli-coloured clouds above a band of foam-specked, wind-tossed waves, the domed cover similarly decorated, six-character mark in underglaze blue within double circles. Quantity: 2 - 19.2 cm, 7 1/2  in.

Provenance: Collection of Mr and Mrs D. Saunders.
John Sparks Ltd., London.

Note: Bowls of this powerful design are held in important museums and private collections worldwide; for example, one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection. Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 30; a pair in the Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, was included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 52; a single bowl in the British Museum, London, is published in R.L. Hobson, The Later Ceramic Wares of China, London, 1925, pl. LV, fig. 1; and another is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Avery Brundage Collection, San Francisco, 1967, pl. LXXIII (C). See also a bowl of this type from the Aykroyd collection, illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1951, pl. XCIV, fig. 3, and sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 17th May 1966, lot 230; and a pair sold in these rooms, 8th December 1992, lot 269.