A Fine Pair of Chinese, Famille Rose, Paper-Thin Eggshell Porcelain Dragon Bowls. Qianlong four-character seal marks in iron-red to the base. These stunning bowls or libation cups are made from exceptionally thin eggshell porcelain (a type of ware known in Chinese as Pinyin danpi bodiless ware, t’o-t’ai bodiless ware, or also tan-p’i bodiless ware [Wade-Giles]). This type of porcelain is characterized by its extraordinary thinness. The manufacture of this porcelain takes immense skill, since the thinness is achieved by manually shaving-down the unfired porcelain pieces. I hope that my translation to the listing title is correct. They are of lobed, slightly fluted, form on a narrow rounded foot rim. They are hand decorated in famille-rose enamels on a yellow ground. To the upper body of each bowl is a band of ruyi, towards the rim. The outer decoration consists of a scrolling design of three dragons between flowering tree-peony blooms. Mudan, these are interspersed with other blossoms on the yellow ground. Towards the foot there is a band of rolling waves. To the inside of each bowl, beneath the rim, is a further band of ruyi decoration and four further blooms (a red lotus, a pink peony, a blue chrysanthemum and a yellow hibiscus) arranged around a small central roundel containing a further red dragon. The flowers are all auspicious symbols. There is a four-character Qianlong seal-mark on each base. The marks on these bowls are unusual but there was much experimentation with reign marks on porcelain in the first two decades of the Qianlong Emperors reign. These are probably later pseudo-Qianlong marks and the bowls probably date to the early 20th Century, during China’s Republican Period. The bowls each measure approximately 8.2 cm in diameter and 3.8 cm tall. The bowls are in excellent condition with no chips, cracks, losses, damage or restoration. There is one tiny dark, unglazed mark on the top rim of one of the bowls probably from the firing. We have extensive experience with packing items worldwide and these bowls will be very carefully wrapped and boxed for transit. The item “Antique Chinese Yellow Eggshell’Bodiless Ware’ Porcelain Dragon Bowls” is in sale since Wednesday, February 28, 2018. This item is in the category “Antiques\Asian/Oriental Antiques\Chinese\Bowls”. The seller is “jantregeagle” and is located in Witney. This item can be shipped worldwide.

• Product: Bowl
• Primary Material: Porcelain/ Pottery
• Region of Origin: Chinese
• Original/Repro: Antique Original
• Features: Handpainted
• Sub-Type: Eggshell Porcelain