A very rare pair of yellow-ground iron-red decorated 'dragon' bowls, Seal marks and period of Qianlong

Collection of Sir Thomas Beaumont Hohler (1871-1946), and thence by descent. 

With regal five-clawed dragons swirling atop a rich yellow ground, these bowls are the epitome of imperial splendour. The vibrant colours of these designs, the use of which was restricted to only those closest to the emperor, lends the pair an ineffable sense of vivacity and sophistication. 

A number of closely related bowls of this design are held in important museum collections. Compare one in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong: Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, pl. 15; another in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, published in Rose Kerr, Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1986, p. 49, fig. 27; and another in the collection of the Nanjing Museum, Nanjing, exhibited in Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 84. Another closely related pair of bowls from the Yidetang Collection was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 12th October 2021, lot 25.