KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)

It is very rare to find a blue and white Kangxi bowl decorated with dragons against a plain white ground. More typically, a bowl might be decorated with two dragons amidst fire and cloud scrolls, such as the bowl sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 12 September 2018, lot 106, or a ‘dragon’ bowl with fu (happiness) and shou (longevity) characters supported on lingzhi fungus, illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 26-27, no. 18. However a smaller bowl (15.9 cm. diam.), decorated with dragons on a white background in pursuit of flaming pearls, is illustrated idem., p. 20, no. 13; and a vase of similar design with a dragon on a white background is illustrated idem., p. 19, no. 12.