Lot 49. A rare massive white-glazed 'dragon' fish bowl, Kangxi period (1662-1722); 72cm diam. Sold for €32,000 (Estimate €15,000 - €20,000).  Photo Bonhams.

Sturdily potted with steeply rounded sides tapering towards the unglazed foot, sloping at the gently incurved shoulders to a wide mouth with rounded lip, boldly carved around the exterior with a pair of ferocious five-clawed dragons in pursuit of a flaming pearl, amidst flames and cruciform clouds, above rolling and cresting waves and craggy rockwork around the base, covered overall with a bluish-white glaze, the recessed base unglazed, wood stand.

Provenance: Hoffmann collection, Berlin, acquired in the 1920s from China Bohlken, Berlin (by repute)
Nagel, Stuttgart, 30 October 2009, lot 214.

Published: Daniel Suebsman and Daniela Antonin, Kangxi - Porcelain Treasures of the Kangxi Period, Düsseldorf, 2016, pp.84-85
The Dancing Dragon! Kangxi / China Contemporary, Hetjens Museum, Düsseldorf, 19 July 2015 - 17 January 2016, no.30.

Note: The design on this large fishbowl is boldly incised, and also appears on vessels of the same shape decorated in copper-red and underglaze-blue, see, for example a fish bowl in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), Hong Kong, 2000, pl.190. Another example similarly modelled with deep rounded sides rising to a lipped rim, is published in Anthony du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p.208, fig.2. It is also interesting to compare the present example with a large celadon-glazed fish bowl decorated with a moulded dragon design, in the Palace Museum collection, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, p.149, no.135. See also a large lavender-glazed example, sold Sotheby's Hong Kong, 26 November 1980, lot 346.

Bonhams - Cornette de Saint Cyr. CHINESE ART FROM A GERMAN FAMILY COLLECTION, Paris, 26 October 2023