Each with deep rounded sides rising to a slightly everted rim, vividly enamelled in green, red, aubergine and yellow with two striding five-clawed dragons striding in pursuit of the flaming pearl, separated by two descending phoenixes amidst leafy meander, all below a band to the rim enclosing the Eight Buddhist Emblems alternating with clusters of ruyi heads, the interior similarly decorated with a sinuous iron-red dragon in pursuit of a flaming pearl amidst billowing clouds.

Provenance: an English private collection, acquired in China circa 1950, and thence by descent.

Note: Compare a similar wucai 'dragon and phoenix' bowl, Daoguang seal mark and of the period, formerly in the Kwan Collection, illustrated in Imperial Porcelain of Late Qing, Hong Kong, 1983, pp.68, no.44.

A similar wucai 'dragon and phoenix' bowl, Daoguang seal mark and of the period, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 4 October, lot 3736.

Bonhams. FINE CHINESE ART, London, 8 Nov 2018.