Lot 9. A fine and rare yellow-and-green 'dragon' bowl, mark and period of Yongzheng (1723-1735); 15 cm., 5 7/8 in. Estimate 1,000,000—1,500,000 HKD. Lot Sold 2,420,000 HKD. Photo Sotheby's 2011

finely potted with wide rounded sides everted at the rim issuing from a narrow tapering foot, engraved on the outside with two striding five-clawed dragons with forked horns, bushy manes and scaly bodies, each chasing a 'flaming pearl', all above a border of crashing waves circling the foot, the designs all picked out in a deep green on a bright yellow ground, the interior left white.

Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection

Note: Yellow-and-green 'dragon' bowls are based on Ming dynasty prototypes and were already produced in the Zhengde, Jiajing and Wanli reigns. A Zhengde example in the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, Holland, is illustrated in Barbara Harrisson, Keramiek uit Azie, Leeuwarden, 1985, pl. 53; another, probably also of the Zhengde reign but with a phags-pa mark is in the British Museum, London, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 8:31; and a Jiajing example is illustrated in Soame Jenyns, Ming Pottery and Porcelain, London, 1953, pl. 90A.