Expert’s note:
The dragon on the present vase appears to emerge from misty clouds, an iconic scene and most notably a homage to the Song dynasty artist Chen Rong, and his famous ‘Six Dragons’ painting, sold by Christie’s New York in 2017 for $48 million.

In porcelain, however, the design is complex to execute: The dragon is first incised into the ware, then overpainted in faint hues of cobalt blue, and finally covered with a semi-translucent glaze paste. This glaze pools inside the incisions and over the cobalt blue during firing. When kilned accurately, the blue attains a distinctive 'foggy' appearance, reminiscent of Yongle anhua wares but more vibrant, aligning closely with the ‘Six Dragons’ motif.

Due to the complex execution process and the high likelihood of misfires, very few such pieces were ever created. In fact, it appears that the present lot is the only known surviving example.

China, 1722-1735. Superbly potted, the shoulders neatly incised and painted in underglaze blue with a dragon shrouded in mist and chasing a flaming pearl, covered overall in a semi-translucent white glaze stopping neatly around the recessed base.

With an underglaze-blue four-character kaishu mark Yongzheng nianzhi and of the period.

Condition: Near-perfect condition with only minor wear, minimal firing irregularities, and very few light scratches.
Provenance:
- Edward Thomas Hall Collection, no. 226.
- Christie's London, The E. T. Hall Collection of Chinese Monochrome Porcelains, 7 June 2004, lot 40.
- The Inder Rieden Collection, acquired from the above.
- Bonhams New Bond Street, 10 November 2011, lot 53, estimate GBP 40,000 or approx. EUR 77,000 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).
- A noted European private collection, acquired from the above in an after-sale transaction.

The base with an old label from Christie’s, ‘Lot 40, E. T. Hall Collection, 7 June 2004’.

Professor Edward Thomas Hall CBE (1924-2001) was a physical scientist and inventor who worked as the Director of the Oxford radiocarbon dating laboratory from 1954 to 1989. He collected Chinese ceramics and historical clocks. In retirement, he built one of the most accurate pendulum clocks in the world. Hall's driving interest was the pursuit of archaeological science – the use of methods for finding, dating, and authenticating ancient objects. He developed non-destructive methods of analyzing museum objects such as the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer which was used for glazed Chinese pottery and other ancient material. A trustee of the National Gallery and the British Museum, he sat on the Advisory Council of the Science Museum. He was a regular client at Bluett's and purchased Qing Imperial monochromes. See Roy Davids and Dominic Jellinek, Provenance. Collectors, Dealers & Scholars: Chinese Ceramics in Britain & America, Oxford, 2011, page 211-212.

Anthony Inder Rieden was a Dutch financial advisor and hedge fund manager who is well known for his collection of 17^th century Dutch maritime paintings, the largest in private hands. Inder Rieden’s collection of Imperial Chinese porcelain represented another of his passions and was formed over three decades, initially focusing on monochromes and Kangxi blue and white of the type imported by the V.O.C., but then gradually developing into an enhanced taste for the finest quality enameled 'mark and period' wares of Imperial China.

Weight: 530.6 g
Dimensions: Height 17.4 cm

Arguably the best-known motif in Chinese art, and certainly one of the most iconic in the world, the dragon is a multivalent symbol imbued with many layers of meaning, including protection, happiness, and fertility. In early Chinese art the dragon was understood as a symbol of the eastern cardinal direction and it has long been associated with water, particularly lakes and rivers. The dragon also signifies imperial rule, and works decorated with five-clawed dragons are known to have been produced for use at court.