Page 89 - Christie's Fine Chinese Paintings March 19 2019 Auction

1637
A LARGE BLUE AND WHITE ‘DRAGON AND PHOENIX’ BOWL
WANLI PERIOD (1573-1619)
PROVENANCE
The exterior is decorated on one side with a striding four-clawed dragon Private collection, France.
reaching towards a faming pearl surrounded by fames, and on the other with
a phoenix standing amidst leafy branches bearing six-petaled blossoms. The Whilst the combination of a dragon and a phoenix, representing the
interior is decorated in the medallion with a bird perched on a rock next to a Emperor and Empress, is a popular theme in Chinese art, the rendering of
peony branch, and in the well with branches of peony and other blossoms, each creature in such difering painting styles, with the energetic dragon
separated by clumps of aster. surrounded by loose fre scrolls, and the phoenix more static and hemmed in
by dense fowers and foliage, is very unusual.
14√ in. (37.7 cm.) diam.
The present bowl is also exceptional for its large size. A related bowl with
$15,000-18,000
dragon and phoenix decoration, dated to the early to mid-seventeenth
century, but with an apocryphal Chenghua mark on the base, is illustrated
by R. Krahl and J. Ayers, Chinese Porcelains in the Topkapi Saray Museum,
Istanbul, London, 1986, vol. II, pp. 786-87, no. 1521.
明萬曆 青花龍鳳紋大盌

(interior) ( (another view)th i )

87