A massive yellow-ground green and aubergine 'dragon' charger. Qing dynasty, Guangxu Period

A massive yellow-ground green and aubergine 'dragon' charger. Qing dynasty, Guangxu Period. photo courtesy Sotheby's

boldly incised in the center with two leaping dragons, one in green enamels and one in aubergine enamels, confronting on a 'flaming pearl' amidst scattered billowing clouds and flame motifs, the cavetto encircled by flowering sprays of lotus, peony, prunus, chrysanthemum and peach blossom, the wide everted rim encircled by a frieze of six smaller dragons each chasing 'flaming pearls', the underside with four matching larger dragons beneath a frieze of cranes interspersed with clouds on the rim, the decoration all incised and brightly enamelled on a rich egg-yolk yellow ground, the base inscribed with a Chuxiu Gong zhi seal mark; diameter 28 in., 71 cm. Estimate 80,000—100,000 USD. Lot Sold 62,500 USD

NOTE: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Exhibition of Imperial Porcelain of Late Qing, Hong Kong, 1983, included a large biscuit dish, no. 96, with the Chuxiu Gong zhi mark, which is illustrated, p. 154. A discussion of this dish by Simon Kwan, ibid., pp. 30 - 31, states that these wares consist mainly of large objects for display, believed to have been ordered by the Empress Dowager Cixi for her own special use when she was residing at the Chuxiu Gong, the Palace of Gathering Elegance, in the Imperial Palace. The Empress Dowager was believed to have used the Chuxiu Gong for several years around 1856 and again around 1885.

The design of this dish originates from a earlier Kangxi prototype; for a Kangxi example, see John Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, no. 197.

An almost identical dish sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 20th May 1987, lot 592, and again in our London rooms, 19th June 2002, lot 70.

Sotheby's. Fine Ceramics and works of Art. 15 Sept 2010. New York www.sothebys.com