A fine white-glazed anhua-decorated 'dragon' cup, Mark and period of Kangxi | 清康熙 白釉暗劃趕珠龍紋盃 《大清康熙年製》款

Collection of the Hall family, coll. no. 234.

Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 2nd May 2000, lot 521.

霍爾家族收藏，編號234

香港蘇富比2000年5月2日，編號521

Although very thinly potted white porcelain cups with engraved hidden anhua decoration of dragons were found on Ming monochromes, it was not until the Kangxi period that craftsmen from the imperial kilns truly mastered this technique. 

Compare a closely related pair, from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Sun yingzhou de taoci shijie [The ceramics world of Sun Yingzhou], Beijing Palace Museum, Beijing, 2003, cat. no. 116; a pair from the Meiyingtang Collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, pl. 792; and another bowl from the Baur Foundation, Museum of Far Eastern Art, Geneva, illustrated in Mille Ans de Monochromes, Geneva, 2018, cat. no. 186.