Bonhams 1793 : A very rare large wucai 'dragon' saucer dish Longqing six-character mark and of the period

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8 Nov 2012 10:00 GMT London, New Bond Street
Fine Chinese Art
Back to auction 20024

A very rare large wucai 'dragon' saucer dish

Longqing six-character mark and of the period
The shallow dish with characteristic slight warping of the body, the central medallion enamelled with an iron-red five-clawed dragon and an underglaze-blue five-clawed dragon encircling a blue flaming pearl amidst flames and cloud scrolls within an iron-red double circle, the exterior with four striding five-clawed dragons in red, blue, yellow and green. 33.8cm (13¼in) diam.

Estimate:

£70,000 - 100,000
HK$ 830,000 - 1.2 million
CNY 650,000 - 940,000

Footnotes

明隆慶五彩雙龍戲珠紋盤青花「大明隆慶年造」楷書款

Given the short six-year reign of the Longqing Emperor, it is very rare to find pieces specifically dated to this period. Those that do survive are often similar in style to those of the earlier Jiajing and later Wanli periods.

Wucai enamel ware, as in the present lot, was particularly popular at the Longqing court, and examples are now included in well-known museum and private collections. See for example a very similar dish illustrated by J.Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no.10:8. Another example is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, no.200. A final example in the Percival David Collection is illustrated by R.Scott and R.Kerr, Ceramic Evolution in the Middle Ming Period: Hongzhi to Wanli (1488-1620), Singapore, 1994, no.20.