Ming Blue and White
A fine and large blue and white 'dragon' jar
Wanli six-character mark and of the period
The powerfully potted jar of large ovoid form surmounted by an everted lip, vividly painted in brilliant tones of underglaze-blue with a pair of mighty five-clawed dragons with long scaly bodies, depicted writhing amidst flame scroll alongside a stylised shou character above a band of jagged rocks and below a band of scrolling foliage, firing crack to base.
53cm (20 3/4in) high.
The powerfully potted jar of large ovoid form surmounted by an everted lip, vividly painted in brilliant tones of underglaze-blue with a pair of mighty five-clawed dragons with long scaly bodies, depicted writhing amidst flame scroll alongside a stylised shou character above a band of jagged rocks and below a band of scrolling foliage, firing crack to base.
53cm (20 3/4in) high.
Sold for
£72,000
inc. premium
Footnotes
- A similar jar from the Ottoman collection is illustrated by Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, London, 1986, vol.2, no.1328. By family tradition, the current jar was bought in 1938 from Taimur Jahan Begum, the immediate descendant of the Mughal Emperors, who stated that it had previously been in the collection of the Jehangir Emperor (1569-1627). In Chinese Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1956, John Alexander Pope relates how Wanli blue and white porcelain was sent to Shah Abbas in Persia and to the Mughal Emperor. Two jars of this form are preserved in the Ardebil Shrine Collection, and it can be conjectured that the provenance of this jar stretches back to the original gifts from the Wanli Emperor.
A Jiajing prototype of this jar in the National Palace Museum collection is illustrated by Ma Xigwai, Beauty of Ceramics, vol.3: Blue and White Porcelain, Taipei, 1993, pl.55.
For a similar jar sold at auction, see Sotheby's Hong Kong, 26 October, 2003, lot 123.
Category: Asian Art
Auction terms and conditions