LARGE BLUE AND WHITE 'DRAGON' BRUSH WASHER
YONGZHENG MARK, 19TH-20TH CENTURY
十九至二十世紀 雍正款 青花雙龍搶珠大筆洗of cylindrical form, the straight side painted two five-clawed dragons chasing for a flaming pearl, the base inscribed with a six-character apocryphal Yongzheng mark in underglaze blue 
25.6cm diameter 
Collection of Sir Alan Campbell, GCMG, thence by descent to his daughterThe diplomat Alan Campbell (later Sir Alan Campbell, 1919-2007) was the youngest son of Hugh Campbell, (1873-1943) silk merchant and Director of Ilbert & Co, Shanghai. In 1905 Hugh Campbell married Ethel Warren (1881-1951) daughter of HM Consul-General in Shanghai, Sir Pelham Warren (1845-1923). Alan Campbell, who inherited an interest in Chinese porcelain from his parents, probably acquired this dish in Beijing in 1956-57 during his time as Head of Chancery at the British Legation. His neighbour and colleague in the Legation was John Addis (later Sir John Addis KCMG, 1914-83, British Ambassador to China 1972-4), a collector and authority on Ming porcelain, who made important donations of ceramics and textiles to the British Museum and the V&A; Museum. Campbell’s memoir Colleagues and Friends, published in 1988, mentions shopping for antiquities in Wig Street and getting ‘sound advice’ from Addis.