A LARGE AND FINE CHINESE IMPERIAL PURPLE-GLAZED ANHUA ‘FIVE DRAGON’ DISH

A LARGE AND FINE CHINESE IMPERIAL PURPLE-GLAZED ANHUA ‘FIVE DRAGON’ DISH
SIX CHARACTER KANGXI MARK AND OF THE PERIOD 1662-1722

Finely potted with shallow rounded sides rising from a slightly tapered foot to an everted rim. The centre incised with a large, single five-clawed dragon writhing among flames, encircled by two further dragons to the cavetto, striding in pursuit of a flaming pearl of wisdom. The reverse similarly incised with two dragons chasing a pearl above a band of petal lappets above the foot, applied overall with a brilliant purple glaze partly running over the foot, the front with a paper lot label for Sotheby's London, 17th November 1938, lot 174, 25cm.

Provenance: Field Marshal Earl Kitchener of Khartoum (1850-1916), and thence by descent through the family. This dish is one of two recorded in the Christie, Manson & Woods inventory at Broome Park, in December 1916 on page 46, nos.29 and 30, under the title heading of ‘Whole Colour Porcelain’.

Cf. Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 12th October 2021, lot 23, for an almost identical Kangxi purple-glazed dish of the same size from the collection of Edward T Hall. Other closely related dishes are illustrated in: Kangxi Porcelains from the Shanghai Museum Collection, pl.224; Chinese Porcelain, the S C Ko Tianminlou Collection, pt.1, pl.144; and another was included in the Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics, The Koger Collection, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, cat. no.172, where it is suggested that this vibrant purpleish glaze was an innovation of the late Kangxi period.

清康熙 御製茄皮紫釉暗花龍紋盤
《大清康熙年製》青花楷書款
來源：霍雷肖•赫伯特•基奇納元帥（1850-1916），之後由其後人繼承。據佳士得Manson & Woods出版的， Broome Park庫存手冊中記載，1916年12月，頁46， 編號29及30的其中一件。