A yellow-ground green-enamelled 'dragon' bowl, Mark and period of Yongzheng | 清雍正 黃地綠彩龍紋盌 《大清雍正年製》款

The present bowl is remarkable for not only its intricately incised dragon design and its strikingly contrasting colour scheme, but also for its historical context at the Qing court. There were strict regulations on the variety and quantity of tableware to be used by the different imperial members during the Qing dynasty. According to Guochao gongshi / The History of the Imperial House and Court, which was first compiled in the seventh year of the Qianlong reign (1742), vessels with the design of green dragons on a yellow ground, such as the present piece, could only be used by guifei (the Emperor’s concubines of the second rank) at the court. This prestigious bowl would have demonstrated the very high status of its female owner at that time.

Similar bowls can be found in important public and private collections, such as a pair formerly in the collection of T.Y. Chao, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong exhibition Ch’ing Polychrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1977, cat. no. 69, later sold in these rooms, 19th May 1987, lot 315; another pair formerly in the collection of the British Rail Pension Fund, sold multiple times at auction and most recently at Christie’s Hong Kong, 26th April 2004, lot 958; one in the Tianminlou Collection, included in the exhibition Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1987, cat. no. 97; and a larger one preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Gugong Bowuyuan cang: Qingdai yuyao ciqi / Qing Porcelains from the Imperial Kilns Preserved in the Palace Museum, vol. 1, part 2, Beijing, 2005, pl. 7.

本品細膩刻繪遊龍、祥雲，罩以黃地綠彩，發色明豔清朗，氣勢尊貴非凡。如此色彩搭配乃嚴格依據清宮規範，視其使用者身分而定，《國朝宮史》，首編於乾隆七年，記載此類黃地綠龍紋器皿，僅限貴妃使用，階級極高。

類同作例參考趙從衍舊藏一對，展出於香港東方陶瓷學會特展，《清代彩瓷》，香港，1977年，編號69，售於香港蘇富比，1987年5月19日，編號315。英國鐵路基金會收藏一對，曾多次售於拍賣會，近期於2004年4月26日香港佳士得售出，編號958。天民樓珍藏一例，錄於《天民樓藏瓷》，香港藝術館，1987年，編號97。北京故宮博物院藏一例，尺寸較大，載於《故宮博物館藏清代御窰瓷器》，卷1（下），北京，2005年，圖版7。