Page 79 - Ming Porcelain Auction March 14, 2017 Sotheby's, NYC

2003 I mperial porcelain bowls decorated with green-enameled dragons rst
109 107 108 appeared in the Chenghua period, with and sometimes without reign marks
and either enameled with dragons over the glaze or over the biscuit. More
110 111 were manufactured in later periods of the Ming dynasty, particularly during the
Hongzhi and Zhengde reigns, where they were always inscribed with a reign
75 mark. This motif, which is also found on matching saucer dishes, required each
vessel to be red twice: rst the design was incised on the biscuit and covered
2009 with a layer of wax, which would melt during the rst ring and reveal the pinkish
bu body underneath. This was later lled with green enamel and red a second
70 69 time at a much lower temperature. The result is striking as the dragon appears
as if leaping o the surface of the bowl.
Alfred Aykroyd
For the Chenghua prototype of this design, see a dish enameled with green
1966 5 17 14 dragons on the exterior, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the
Museum’s exhibition Chenghua ciqi tezhan/ Special Exhibition of Ch’eng-hua
1988 11 15 158 Porcelain Ware, 1465-1487, Taipei, 2003, cat. no. 109, together with two similar
bowls, cat. nos 107 and 108, and two bowls with dragons enameled over the
Anthony du Boulay biscuit silhouettes, cat. nos 110 and 111.

2003 11 10 122 Porcelain wares decorated with green dragons continued to be produced in
the Qing dynasty, from the Kangxi to the Guangxu reigns, such as a dish with
2013 5 15 117 an apocryphal Hongzhi mark, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in
The Complete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum. Miscellaneous
S Valenstein A Handbook of Chinese Enamelled Porcelains Plain Tricolour Porcelains, Shanghai, 2009, pl. 75.

Ceramics 1989 156 This bowl is notable for its large size; see a closely related example in the
Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures in
Daisy Lion Goldschmidt the Palace Museum, op. cit., pl. 70, together with a Hongzhi mark and period
example, pl. 69; another from the collection of Sir Alfred Aykroyd, sold in our
Ming Porcelain 1978 London rooms, 17th May 1966, lot 14, and again in our Hong Kong rooms,
15th November 1988, lot 158; and a third from the collection of Anthony du
106 Boulay, sold at Bonhams London, 10th November 2003, lot 122, and again in
our London rooms, 15th May 2013, lot 117. A slightly smaller bowl of this design
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is illustrated in S. Valenstein, A
Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, pl. 156; and another from the
collection of Sir Percival David, now in the British Museum, London, is published
in Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt, Ming Porcelain, London, 1978, pl. 106.