A YELLOW-GROUND GREEN-ENAMELED 'DRAGON' BOWL, KANGXI MARK AND PERIOD China, 1662-1722. The exterior is masterfully incised and decorated in green enamel with two dragons in pursuit of flaming pearls amidst wispy clouds and flames, below a scrolling foliate band around the rim. The interior shows a central shou character within a double circle, all reserved on an opaque lemon-yellow ground. The recessed base with an underglaze-blue six-character mark da Qing Kangxi nianzhi within a double circle and of the period.

Provenance: From the collection of Captain Charles Oswald Liddell, acquired in China before 1914 and thence by descent. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Captain Charles Oswald Liddell (1854-1941) worked in China from 1877 to 1913. He married Elizabeth Birt in 1880 in Shanghai and thereby inherited Birt's Wharf there, expanding the business to Hangzhou, Tianjin, and Harbin. Liddell collaborated with A. W. Bahr in an exhibition in Shanghai in 1908, as Chairman of the North China branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and in writing descriptions for it, which were printed by A. W. Bahr in “Old Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art in China” in 1911. Charles Liddell had formed his collection, except for three pieces, while trading in China for nearly forty years. He purchased a number of them from two significant sources: Prince Chun, the last Regent of the Qing Dynasty, and the private secretary and adviser to Li Hong Zhang. In May 1929, Bluett offered a part of the collection, publishing a catalog of “The Liddell Collection of Old Chinese Porcelain” with 229 entries. One of two Guyuexuan bowls in this exhibition was sold to the Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone for GBP 150 and was part of the Elphinstone gift to the Percival David Foundation. The second of the two bowls was acquired by Charles Russell, and was subsequently in the collections of Barbara Hutton and Robert Chang, eventually selling in Hong Kong in 2006 for GBP 10,000,000.
Condition: Remarkably good condition commensurate with age, with only minor wear and firing irregularities such as dark spots and uncontrolled glaze pooling, one faint hairline to the rim, near-invisible to the naked eye, and two short glaze lines near the rim.

Weight: 80.0 g
Dimensions: Diameter 10.2 cm

Literature comparison:
Compare a near-identical Kangxi mark and period yellow-ground green-enameled bowl illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Miscellaneous Enameled Porcelains Plain Tricolored Porcelains, Shanghai, 2009, page 107, no. 88.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Near-identical
Auction: Christie's New York, 23 March 2018, lot 779
Price: USD 30,000 or approx. EUR 35,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A yellow-ground green-enameled 'dragon' bowl, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period
Expert remark: Compare the near identical form and size (10.2 cm) as well as the similar enamels, incised decoration, and mark.


康熙款及年代黃地綠彩龍紋碗
中國，1662-1722年。碗撇口，深弧壁，圈足，內外均施黃釉為地其上用綠彩繪製紋樣，外壁口沿飾纏枝紋，腹部為雙龍戲珠紋飾。兩條五爪行龍蜿蜒於碗壁之上，身形矯健，龍口大張，雙目圓睜，尖牙外露，鋒利的龍爪游動，如在雲火之間遊走，威猛異常。近足處繪一周如意紋。碗心綠釉圈內配有壽字。器底青花書“大清康熙年製”六字雙行楷書款。

來源：Charles Oswald Liddell爵士於1914年之前購於中國，保存至今。Liddell爵士出生於蘇格蘭愛丁堡，1877 年至 1913 年在中國工作。他於 1880 年在上海與Elizabeth Birt結婚，從而繼承了那裡的Birt碼頭，並將業務擴展到杭州、天津和哈爾濱。1908年，Liddell與A. W. Bahr合作在上海舉辦展覽，擔任皇家亞洲學會華北分會主席並為其撰寫說明，由A. W. Bahr 1911 年在《中國古代瓷器與藝術品》一書中出版印刷，Charles Liddell 在中國近四十年時間裏，逐漸形成了他自己的收藏，除了三件藏品之外。他有兩個重要的古玩來源：清朝最後一位攝政王淳親王以及李洪章的私人秘書和顧問。 1929 年 5 月，Bluett 提供了部分藏品，出版了《Liddell中國古瓷器收藏》畫冊，共收錄了229件藏品 。展覽中的兩個古月軒碗，其中一個被賣給了Hon. Mountstuart Elphinstone，價格為 150 英鎊，成爲Elphinstone送給 Percival David基金會的禮物之一。另一個碗被Charles Russell收購，隨後被Barbara Hutton和Robert Chang收藏，最終於 2006 年在香港以 10,000,000 英鎊的價格售出。
品相：品相極好，與年齡相符，只有輕微的磨損和燒製瑕疵，如黑斑和釉池，邊緣有一條微弱的冲線，肉眼幾乎看不出，邊緣附近有兩條短的釉線。

重量：80.0 克
尺寸：直徑10.2 厘米

文獻比較：
比較一件幾乎相同的康熙款及年代黃地綠彩碗，見《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集‧顏色釉》，上海， 2009年，頁107，編號88。

拍賣結果比較：
形制：幾乎相同
拍賣：紐約佳士得，2018年3月23日，lot 779
價格：USD 30,000（相當於今日EUR 35,000）
描述：康熙款及年代黃地綠彩龍紋碗
專家評論：比較幾乎相同的外型和尺寸 (10.2 厘米) ，以及釉色、裝飾和底部款識。