Page 134 - 2019 September 11th Sotheby's Important Chinese Art

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A RARE POLYCHROME-ENAMELED ‘DRAGON’ There are few comparable jars to the present example. The
JAR AND COVER guan form with its colorful palette, large size and dynamic
MING DYNASTY, 16TH CENTURY subject matter is rare and represents the ingenuity of
Jingdezhen artisans working during the transformative 16th
of wide baluster form swelling generously from a slightly century. The exuberant painterly style and polychrome
tapered flat base to a gently waisted short neck, the rounded decoration reflects the changing aesthetic of the period
sides brightly painted in red, green and yellow enamels with initiated not only by the disparate tastes of the Zhengde
a wide band depicting two pairs of confronting dragons and Jiajing Emperors, but also by the influence of increased
contesting a’flaming pearl’ amid flame wisps and fiery cloud international trade, much of which was clandestine, and the
scroll enclosed within line borders, below a band of four emergence of a wealthy merchant class.
striding dragons each in pursuit of a ‘flaming pearl’ and a row A jar and cover of the same form and palette with dragon
of stylized lotus scrolls encircling the neck, repeated above
the foot, the domed cover with further floral meander and a decoration is in the British Museum, London, bequeathed
by Francis Howard Paget in 1945, illustrated in Jessica
row of ruyi-heads surmounted by a bud-form knop (2) Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London,
Height 15½ in., 39.5 cm
2001, pl. 9:105. The Tokyo Museum of Art has two similar
PROVENANCE jars and covers; one with dragon decoration is illustrated in
Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, The Tokyo
French Private Collection, since the 19th century
National Museum, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 35; and another
$ 50,000-70,000 but with phoenix, illustrated in Hirota Fukkosai Collection:
Ceramics, Tokyo, 2007, cat. no. 72.
Compare also a related guan and cover with a design of
明十六世紀 五彩趕珠雲龍紋蓋罐 Buddhist lions in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo,
illustrated in Toyo toji meihin zuroku [Catalogue of Oriental
來源 Ceramic Masterpieces], Tokyo, 1991, pl. 84
法國私人收藏，自十九世紀起

132 SOTHEBY’S IMPORTANT CHINESE ART