PAIR CHINESE BLUE AND YELLOW PORCELAIN DRAGON BOWLS.Kangxi six-character underglazed blue mark and possibly of the period. Each painted to depict two dragons chasing the flaming pearl of wisdom. - Each: 5 1/2 in. diam. Estimate $6,000-8,000
PROVENANCE: Estate of Missionary Bishop John W. Gowdy: "He was appointed a Missionary Teacher at the Anglo-Chinese College in Foochow, China, serving in this position 1902-04....became President...in 1904, serving until 1923. He became President of the Fukien Christian University in 1923, serving there until 1927...John W. Gowdy was elected a Bishop by the 1930 meeting of the China Central Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He served as a Bishop in this Central Conference until 1941", the date of his retirement, see Howell, Clinton T., Prominent Personalities in American Methodism, Birmingham, Alabama, The Lowry Press, 1945.
In 1944 Bishop Gowdy received the Special Order of Brilliant Stars medal from Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, see Time Magazine, March, 13, 1944.
Per repute Bishop Gowdy received this pair of dragon bowls in gratitude from a dignitary whose son he taught. Possibly Chiang Kai-shek or China's Bishop Chen Wenyuan's father who was "...a Chinese magistrate in Foochow, Chen Wenyuan was born a Buddhist. At Foochow's Anglo-Chinese College he learned about Christianity from Methodist Bishop John Gowdy", see Time Magazine, March, 13, 1944.
Given as a wedding present to Bishop Gowdy's daughter.
Good condition; firing brown spot on one mouth rim; inside dragon with firing round spot irregularity on the glaze
