Lot 176. A fine and rare large blue and white 'dragon' dish, Qianlong seal mark and period (1736-1795). Diameter 44.5 cm, 17½ in. Estimate: 70,000 - 90,000 GBP. Lot sold: 302,400 GBP. Courtesy Sotheby's.

boldly painted to the centre in varying tones of deep cobalt blue with a large leaping dragon amidst clouds and flames and enclosing a stylised shou character in the curve of its body, encircled around the well by a band of four striding sinuous dragons pursuing each other, the everted rim painted with crested waves on a rolling blue sea, the exterior with a continuous frieze of jagged rocks issuing from turbulent waves, the base inscribed with a six-character seal mark in underglaze blue.

Note: This dish is part of a group of dishes of the same large size and shape, all painted in similar tones of vibrant and unusually deep dark blue with a central dragon. Compare a dish sold in Christie's Hong Kong, 30th April 2000, lot 599, and another example sold in Christie's New York, 25th March 2011, lot 1667. A third dish of this type from the Gulexuan collection, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Gulexuan Collection, Luenen, 2003, p. 156.