Footnotes

Provenance:
John Dearman Birchall (1828-1897), Bowden Hall, Gloucestershire, collection no.380 (according to label and noted in inventory).
A Scottish private collection.

清乾隆 御製黃地綠彩蒼龍教子瓶 「大清乾隆年製」款

來源
John Dearman Birchall（1828-1897），格洛斯特郡鮑登莊園，藏品編號380（貼有標籤並記載於清單中）
蘇格蘭私人珍藏

John Dearman Birchall Senior (1828–1897) was a wealthy clothing manufacturer, art collector, and patron of the arts. Born in Leeds to a successful Quaker wool merchant, he built on his family's manufacturing legacy, leading their firm to international acclaim. Under his direction, their cloth earned prizes at major exhibitions in London (1862), Paris (1867 and 1878), Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876), and Sydney (1879). Alongside his business ventures, Birchall cultivated a passion for art, amassing a remarkable collection of Chinese porcelain, especially blue and white wares, and Persian fabrics. His diaries reveal that in the 1870s he bought from and sold porcelain to the Dutch-based dealer Joel Duveen, whose growing influence in the Chinese art market mirrored Birchall's expanding collection. By the 1890s, Duveen offered to buy Birchall's entire collection for wealthy American industrialists like Henry Clay Frick and J. Pierpont Morgan, but Birchall declined, preferring to keep his treasures on display at his residence, Bowden Hall.

A man of refined taste, Birchall was also a patron of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, supporting their revival of rich colour, intricate detail, and romantic medievalism. His passion for both Chinese ceramics and contemporary British art reflected his sophisticated aesthetic sensibilities. In his later years, he enjoyed his collection in the elegant surroundings of Bowden Hall, where he also supported charitable and philanthropic causes, earning him considerable local prestige.

The present lot is extremely rare. With its elegantly proportioned form and vibrant green-and-yellow dragon design, the vase stands out not only for its finely incised dragon motif but also for its exceptionally rare colour scheme. While the combination of green and yellow enamels on porcelain can be traced back to the Yongle reign, it is typically seen on bowls and dishes rather than on vases, making it particularly unusual. Compare with a vase with tubular ears decorated with green dragons of similar design on a yellow ground, Qianlong impressed seal mark and of the period, in the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Miscellaneous Enamelled Porcelains Plain Tricoloured Porcelain, Shenzhen, 2009, pp.130-131. Another vase, similar to the one in the Qing Court Collection, also with a Qianlong seal mark and of the period, is illustrated by Anthony du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p.212, pl.2.

The design of two dragons on this vase symbolises the emperor and his heir, a common motif in Qing Imperial art known as canglong jiaozi (蒼龍教子), meaning 'an old dragon teaches his son.' The dragon, a symbol of Imperial authority and cosmic power, is often depicted in pairs to represent the reigning emperor and his successor, signifying the continuity of dynastic rule. The dragons chasing flaming pearls, symbols of wisdom and enlightenment, further reinforce the idea of the emperor passing both power and virtue to his heir.

In 1773, the Qianlong Emperor chose his 15th son, Yongyan, as his successor, a decision that would lead to Yongyan's ascension as the Jiaqing Emperor in 1796. Over the years, Qianlong carefully mentored his son, preparing him for the responsibilities of rulership. Thus, in this context, one can read the vase as the larger five-clawed dragon representing the Qianlong Emperor, while the slightly smaller dragon represents Jiaqing.

The combination of yellow and green for decorating the surface of porcelain vessels first appeared at the Imperial kilns in Jingdezhen during the early 15th century. Excavations at Zhushan have uncovered dishes from the Xuande period with a yellow ground and green dragons amidst clouds. See Xuande Imperial Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1998, p.78, no.73. These Xuande pieces are notable not only for their distinctive coloration but also for the fine relief lines in the fahua style, which separate the colours. In contrast, the current vase uses incised lines to separate the green and yellow, with these lines also providing detailed elements of the motifs. Both green and yellow are low-firing glazes and enamels that were applied after the initial porcelain firing. This colour combination remained a court favourite throughout the Ming and Qing dynasties, even becoming part of the sumptuary laws. Indeed, according to the Guochao gongshi (The History of the Imperial House and Court), first compiled in the seventh year of the Qianlong reign (1742), vessels featuring a design of green dragons on a yellow ground, such as the present lot, were reserved exclusively for use by guifei, the Emperor's concubines of the second rank at the Imperial Court.

See a yellow-ground green enamelled 'dragon' vase with lug handles, Qianlong seal mark and of the period, sold in Christie's New York, 17 September 2008, lot 480.