A very rare pair of blue and white 'dragon' stem bowls, Qing dynasty, Qianlong period

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

Decorated with rich tones of underglaze blue and a vibrant design of imperial dragons, this pair of stem bowls is exemplary of a very rare type. The design and form of the present pair were inspired by much coveted prototypes from the Xuande period (1426-1435) decorated with dragons and waves. Compare a related stem bowl of Xuande mark in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 163; and another, of a similar type but with the waves massed on the stem, illustrated in Suning Sun-Bailey, ‘The E.S. Thornhill Bequet of Chinese Ceramics at the North Staffordshire Polytechnic’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 48, London, 1983-4, p. 77, pl. 15.