Page 87 - Chinese works of art and paintings, March 19 Bonhams

8100
A BLUE AND WHITE ‘DRAGON AND PHOENIX’ FISH BOWL
Longqing mark and of the period Few Longqing marked porcelains exist due to the brevity of the
Sturdily potted with gently bulging sides, boldly painted in deep six year reign. We do know that many large fish bowls were made
cobalt blue with two pairs of confronting dragon and phoenix, amid as reported by Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British
scrolling clouds displaying the heaped and piling effect, above a band Museum, London, 2001, p. 267-268, where the author notes that
of crashing waves encircling the base, the rolled rim painted with a in 1571, according to the Fouliang county records, an imperial order
classic lotus scroll, the six-character horizontal Da Ming Longqing was made for 105,770 items. Xu Shi, the censor for Jingdezhen at
nian zao mark written just below the rim on the interior, the flat foot that time, pleaded that large fish bowls be eliminated from the order
unglazed. as they were difficult to fire and had a high failure rate. However, from
19 1/2in (49.5cm) diameter the surviving number of fish bowls from this short reign, it appears his
plea was ignored. An wucai example of similar shape, with a similar
$5,000 - 7,000 mark is in the British Museum and illustrated op. cit., p. 268. A similar
one was sold in our London rooms, 7 Nov 2013, lot 216.
明隆慶 青花龍鳳呈祥紋魚缸 《大明隆慶年造》款 The heaping and piling effect, a characteristic of earlier Ming
porcelains, is clearly visible on the clouds in the present example,
and occurs when either because of high pigment concentration or
impurities in the cobalt, the underglaze decoration breaks through
the surface of the glaze.

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