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Lot Essay
It is extremely rare to find carved celadon-glazed fish bowls of this decoration, the only other known example was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 1 May 2001, lot 526, which may or may not be the present lot.
This design of dragons vividly depicted in a powerful posture with prominent jaws and distinctive features leaping amidst flaming pearls above waves, also appears on fish bowls decorated in copper-red and underglaze-blue from the same period, such as two examples in the same form, one of which is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 190, the other was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 April 2004, lot 1015; and an example modelled with deep rounded sides rising to a lipped rim, illustrated by Anthony du Boulay in Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p. 208, fig. 2. Compare also to a similar fish bowl in the Palace Museum, Beijing, rendered with copper-red dragon above green-enamelled waves and underglaze-blue rocks, illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 43, no. 26; and again in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua dacidian - taoci juan, Shanghai, 1996, p. 420, fig. 860.
It is also interesting to compare the present example to a Yongzheng celadon-glazed fish bowl in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Monochrome Porcelain, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 149, no. 135. The shapes vary slightly, as do the dragon designs, and the Yongzheng example is moulded as opposed to carved.
This design of dragons vividly depicted in a powerful posture with prominent jaws and distinctive features leaping amidst flaming pearls above waves, also appears on fish bowls decorated in copper-red and underglaze-blue from the same period, such as two examples in the same form, one of which is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 190, the other was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 26 April 2004, lot 1015; and an example modelled with deep rounded sides rising to a lipped rim, illustrated by Anthony du Boulay in Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p. 208, fig. 2. Compare also to a similar fish bowl in the Palace Museum, Beijing, rendered with copper-red dragon above green-enamelled waves and underglaze-blue rocks, illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 43, no. 26; and again in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua dacidian - taoci juan, Shanghai, 1996, p. 420, fig. 860.
It is also interesting to compare the present example to a Yongzheng celadon-glazed fish bowl in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Monochrome Porcelain, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 149, no. 135. The shapes vary slightly, as do the dragon designs, and the Yongzheng example is moulded as opposed to carved.