A Chinese porcelain bowl decorated with famille verte enamels. With rounded sides spreading towards the rim and straight foot. Painted in a band round the sides are red and green, scaly, five-clawed dragons alternating with descending phoenixes among flower scrolls, with, in a rim border, the Eight Auspicious Symbols interspersed with ruyi-heads, and inside, in the centre, a red dragon chasing a pearl among flames. On the base, in blue, is a six-character reign-mark in seal script: Da Qing Qianlong nian zhi(‘Made in the reign of the Qianlong emperor of the Great Qing’).

Like RCIN 58929, this bowl is based on a Ming design. Imperial orders for such bowls, when revived in the Qing dynasty reign of Kangxi (1662–1722), were altered by making use of the new famille verte enamelling palette, which for this design continued in use during later reigns, despite being customarily superseded by that of the famille rose.

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume I.