♦ A rare Chinese Imperial aubergine-enamelled 'dragon' bowl, Qing dynasty, Kangxi mark and period
清康熙 綠地紫彩趕珠雲龍紋盌 青花《大清康熙年製》楷書款

The delicately potted bowl with a slightly flaring rim, the exterior incised and decorated in aubergine with five-clawed dragons striding through flames and clouds in pursuit of flaming pearls above a band of tumultuous waves crashing into rockery, the design reserved on a bright green-glazed ground, the base bearing a Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period, together with a cloth box and labels

(Quantity:2)

Dimensions: 10.2cm diameter

Private New York collection;

J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. 4718;

Christie's, J. J. Lally & Co, New York, 23 March 2023, lot 903;

Santos Collection

來源：

紐約私人收藏；

紐約 J. J. Lally & Co.，編號 4718；

紐約佳士得，《J. J. Lally & Co》，2023 年 3 月 23 日，拍品編號 903；

桑托斯收藏

As Chuimei Ho and Bennet Bronson have observed, the Emperor dined only rarely in the company of his family, one of the few occasions being the Lantern Festival, celebrated on the fifteenth day of the New Year. At this moment of ceremonial gathering, the women who shared his table were provided with vessels carefully prescribed to match their rank. Among these, green-glazed porcelains painted with purple dragons seem to have been reserved for sixth-rank guiren consorts (Splendours of China’s Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong, 2004, pp. 197–202).

Porcelains decorated with dragons in contrasting colours were produced across the Qing dynasty, their manufacture beginning under the Kangxi Emperor. Those that can be securely attributed to his reign, however, are of exceptional rarity and quality. The bold palette employed here appears again under the Yongzheng, Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang and Guangxu emperors, with the largest surviving group dating to the Daoguang reign in the nineteenth century, when such striking combinations found renewed imperial favour.

Two Kangxi-marked bowls of this design and size, formerly in the Helen and Peter Lin Collection, are published in Joined Colors: Decoration and Meaning in Chinese Porcelain, in Chinese Ceramics from the Min Chiu Society, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., 1993, pp. 90–91, nos. 19 and 20. A further example is preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang gu taoci ciliao xuancui [Selection of Ancient Ceramic Material from the Palace Museum], vol. 2, Beijing, 2005, pl. 88, while another is in the Shanghai Museum, published in Wang Qingzheng, ed., Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Shanghai, 1998, pl. 196. Another exampled housed in the Rijksmuseum, accession no. AK-RBK-1955-10-A.

Also to be compared is a larger Kangxi bowl, its rim less flared but its dragons painted in the same vivid palette, in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (He Li, Chinese Ceramics: A New Standard Guide, London, 1996, pl. 615), together with another related example included in Chinese Porcelain from the 15th to the 18th Century, Eskenazi Ltd, London, 2006, cat. no. 11.

Chuimei Ho 與 Bennet Bronson 指出，皇帝平日甚少與家人同席進餐，少數例外為正月十五元宵節。於此禮儀性聚會時，與皇帝同席之后妃所用器物，皆依品級嚴格規定。其中，以綠釉繪紫龍瓷器，似專供六品貴人所用（參見中國紫禁城的輝煌：乾隆盛世，2004 年， 第197–202頁 ）。

以異色彩龍紋裝飾之瓷器，於清代各朝均有燒製，其始見於康熙一朝。惟可確切歸屬於康熙時期者，極為稀有，且製作精良。此種鮮明對比之彩調，於雍正、乾隆、嘉慶、道光及光緒諸朝續有燒造，其中存世數量最多者為十九世紀道光朝，正值宮廷對此類奪目配色重獲偏愛之時。

兩件同尺寸康熙款彩龍碗，原 Helen 與 Peter Lin 收藏，曾刊載於《彩瓷交輝：中國瓷器的裝飾與寓意》，見於敏求精舍藏中國陶瓷，華盛頓史密森尼學會沙可勒美術館，1993 年， 第90–91頁 ，編號 19 與 20。另見一例藏於北京故宮博物院，出版於耿寶昌主編，《故宮博物院藏古陶瓷資料選粹》，卷二，北京，2005 年，圖版 88；另見一例藏於上海博物館，出版於王慶正主編，《康熙瓷器圖錄》，上海，1998 年，圖版 196。另例藏於荷蘭國立博物館，館藏編號AK-RBK-1955-10-A。

另可比較一件尺寸更大之康熙碗，口沿收斂，然龍紋彩調同樣鮮麗，今藏於三藩市亞洲藝術博物館，出版於何立，《中國陶瓷：新標準指南》，倫敦，1996 年，圖版 615。另見一件相關器例，載於倫敦 Eskenazi Ltd，《十五至十八世紀中國瓷器》，2006 年，編號 11。