Page 88 - 2020 Sept Important Chinese Art Sotheby's NYC Asia Week

9/2/2020 Important Chinese Art | Sotheby's

known universe, a position of such importance that the color was associated with the emperor. The strength of the emperor is also
portrayed in the ferocious five-clawed dragons that are vibrantly colored in yellow enamel.

A closely related example in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is included in Gugong Bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi [Porcelains from
the Qing dynasty imperial kilns in the Palace Museum collection], Beijing, 2005, pl. 36; a pair of dishes is published in
the Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum. Chinese Ceramics, vol. II, Tokyo, 1990, pl. 579; and another is illustrated
in Mayuyama. Seventy Years, vol. I, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 1047. See also a dish sold in these rooms, 11th April 2008, lot 2917; another sold
in our London rooms, 6th December 1994, lot 222; and a third dish, from the Sir Joseph E. Hotung Family Trust, sold at Christie's
New York, 22nd March 2007, lot 330, and again in these rooms, 14th March 2014, lot 1, from the Jie Rui Tang collection.

Dishes of this type are rooted in imperial porcelains of the Ming dynasty. By referencing the past, the Kangxi Emperor
simultaneously linked himself to his predecessors while asserting the authority of his rule by means of a distinct style of dragon: in
profile, powerful and refined. For a Ming prototype, see a Jiajing mark and period example, but with a frontal central dragon, in the
British Museum, London, illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 9:86,
together with a Wanli period version, pl. 11:142.

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