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Lot Essay
The present yellow-ground green-enameled bowl is noteworthy not only for its strikingly rendered dragons but also for its significant historical context within the Qing court. The Palace enforced strict rules and regulations governing the types and quantity of tableware permissible for use by imperial family members. According to Huangchao Liqi Tushi (The Illustrated Regulations for Ceremonial Paraphernalia of the Qing Dynasty), an official encyclopedia documenting the regulations and hierarchy of utilitarian and ritual objects at the Qing court, compiled and published by Yun Lu and Jiang Pu in 1766, vessels adorned with green dragons on a yellow ground were designated for use by guifei and fei, the emperor's concubines of the second and third rank.
In 1983, several yellow-ground green-enameled vessels decorated with dragons from the Yongle period were unearthed at the Ming imperial porcelain factory archaeological site in Jingdezhen. This discovery implies that the prototype inspiring the green and yellow palette and dragon decoration of the present Yongzheng bowl can be traced back to the early 15th century. Only a few Yongzheng mark-and-period dragon bowls of this design have survived. A Yongzheng bowl with nearly identical design and size from the Qing Court Collection, is illustrated by Geng Baochang and Lu Chenglong in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum–Miscellaneous Enamelled Porcelains and Plain Tricoloured Porcelains, Shanghai, p. 119, no. 98. The authors note that compared to examples from other dynasties, the yellow enamel on the Yongzheng bowls is purer, more even and delicate, and the color tones are more soft and subtle. Another similar Yongzheng example, formerly in the Greenwald Collection, is illustrated in G. M. Greenwald's The Greenwald Collection: Two Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics, 1996, no. 64, and was later sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2828.
In 1983, several yellow-ground green-enameled vessels decorated with dragons from the Yongle period were unearthed at the Ming imperial porcelain factory archaeological site in Jingdezhen. This discovery implies that the prototype inspiring the green and yellow palette and dragon decoration of the present Yongzheng bowl can be traced back to the early 15th century. Only a few Yongzheng mark-and-period dragon bowls of this design have survived. A Yongzheng bowl with nearly identical design and size from the Qing Court Collection, is illustrated by Geng Baochang and Lu Chenglong in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum–Miscellaneous Enamelled Porcelains and Plain Tricoloured Porcelains, Shanghai, p. 119, no. 98. The authors note that compared to examples from other dynasties, the yellow enamel on the Yongzheng bowls is purer, more even and delicate, and the color tones are more soft and subtle. Another similar Yongzheng example, formerly in the Greenwald Collection, is illustrated in G. M. Greenwald's The Greenwald Collection: Two Thousand Years of Chinese Ceramics, 1996, no. 64, and was later sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 1 December 2010, lot 2828.