Lot 371. A polychrome yellow and green 'Shou and Dragons' square bowl, Jiajing six-character mark and of the period (1522-1566); 11.9cm wide. Sold for HK$ 600,000 (€ 67,105). © Bonhams

The thickly potted bowl with flared sides rising to a slightly everted rim, painted on all four sides of the exterior with a lively five-clawed dragon in flight amongst ruyi-head clouds, all within double-line borders, the interior with a stylised shou character in a double square in the center below a a frieze of fruit sprays at the rim. 

Provenance: Formerly in a private Japanese collection.

Note: For an almost identical Jiajing period bowl with similar polychrome glaze and decoration in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, see Treasure from the Working of Nature: Eight Thousand Years of Antiquities Taipei, 2007, p.97.

See also a bowl with similar decoration in underglaze-blue on a yellow ground, illustrated in The 15th Anniversary Catalogue, Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, 1981, p.197, no.811; and an aubergine, green and yellow-decorated example illustrated in Chinese Porcelain: The S. C. Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong, 1987, Part I, p.118, no.70, where it is noted that square bowls of this type were popular during the Jiajing period, but their popularity declined after the Wanli period.

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART, Hong Kong, Island Shangri-La Hotel, 25 May 2011 to 26 May 2011