A RARE PAIR OF MING-STYLE GREEN-ENAMELED ‘DRAGON’ BOWLS, KANGXI PERIODChina, 1662-1722. Each with deep rounded sides supported on a short foot and rising to an everted rim, the exterior finely incised with two five-clawed dragons amid flames and clouds, reserved on the biscuit and covered with green enamel, the interior similarly decorated with three clouds.Provenance: From an old German private collection, acquired in 1980 and thence by descent in the same family. German trade, acquired from the above.Condition: Excellent condition with only very minor old wear and some firing irregularities.Weight: 338 g and 345.9 g (excl. stands)Dimensions: Diameter 18.7 and 18.9 cmThe recessed bases each with an apocryphal underglaze-blue six-character markda Ming Chenghua nianzhi within a double circle.Each bowl with a finely carved zitan stand, dating from the Qing dynasty. (4)Imperial porcelain bowls decorated with green-enameled dragons first appeared in the Chenghua period, with and sometimes without reign marks, and either enameled with dragons over the glaze or over the biscuit. More were manufactured in later periods of the Ming dynasty, particularly during the Hongzhi and Zhengde reigns, where they were always inscribed with their corresponding reign marks. This motif, which is also found on matching saucer dishes, required each vessel to be fired twice: First the design was incised on the biscuit and covered with a layer of wax, which would melt during the first firing and reveal the pinkish buff body underneath. This was later filled with green enamel and fired a second time at a much lower temperature. The result is rather spectacular, because the dragons appear as if they are literally leaping off the surface of the bowls.Literatureparison:For the Chenghua prototype of this design, see two bowls with dragons enameled over the biscuit silhouettes, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included in the Museum’s exhibition Chenghua ciqi tezhan (Special Exhibition of Ch’eng-Hua Porcelain Ware), Taipei, 2003, cat. nos. 110 and 111. Porcelain wares decorated with green dragons continued to be produced in the Qing dynasty, from the Kangxi to the Guangxu reigns, such as a dish with an apocryphal Hongzhi mark, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Miscellaneous Enameled Porcelains, Plain Tricolour Porcelains. Theplete Collection of Treasures in the Palace Museum, Shanghai, 2009, pl. 75. Furthermore,pare with entry 5 in Marchant, 90th Anniversary Exhibition, Qing Porcelain from Private Collections.Auction resultparison:Type: Closely relatedAuction: Christie’s London, 20 February 2020, lot 134Price: GBP 23,750 or approx.EUR 31,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writingDescription: A green-enameled ‘dragon’ bowl, 18th centuryExpert remark:pare the closely related form, incised and green-enameled drag