Lot 3601. A very rare incised blue and white 'dragon' stem bowl, Seal mark and period of Qianlong (1736-1795); w. 16.8 cm, Japanese wood box. Lot Sold 1,397,000 HKD (Estimate 500,000 - 800,000 HKD). © Sotheby's 2023

Provenance: Sotheby's New York, 31st May 1989, lot 127.
Suichikudo, Tokyo.
Mayuyama & Co., Ltd, Tokyo.

Note: 18th-century stem cups of this type are exceedingly rare; the only other known comparables include an example illustrated in Treasures in the Royalty. The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, pl. 268. The design is of 15th-century inspiration, very likely to be modelled after the Xuande original; the design, blurred cobalt blue, and even the slight warping of the mouth were being faithfully and carefully copied. Compare a large Xuande bowl illustrated in the Taipei Palace Museum, Blue and White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, vol. II, pl. 52, decorated with a very similar design of dragons among peony scrolls on the exterior and with a dragon and lotus medallion in the centre of the interior, all incised in white on a deep blue ground, the sides of the interior glazed in plain blue. Compare also a blue and white stem cup illustrated ibid., pl. 39, with a four-character Xuande reign mark placed in the same position inside the stem.