Page 90 - 2020 December 1 Bonhams Hong Kong, Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of art

A Rare Discovery:

A pair of late Tianshun/early Chenghua
yellow-glazed Anhua ‘Dragon’ Saucer-dishes

(Lots 153 - 154)

Asaph Hyman

The present pair of yellow-glazed saucer-dishes, offered separately as period, in various sizes, with flared as well as straight rims, which are
Lots 153 and 154, is exceptionally rare. The pair formed part of the recorded worldwide (for a detailed list please see the end of the essay).
collection of Thekla and Costantine Marinidis, Athens. The collectors
acquired Chinese art from the late 1950s onwards at leading Chinese It is, however, intriguing that the present pair of yellow-glazed dragon
art dealers including Bluett’s, John Sparks, Marchant’s, C.T. Loo, decorated saucer-dishes is unmarked. However, in the 15th century,
Frank Caro, Compagnie de la Chine at des Indes and A & J Speelman. unmarked Imperial porcelain were made during the Yongle, Zhengtong
These exceptionally rare dishes, hitherto unknown, have been re- and Tianshun periods; for examples excavated from the Imperial
discovered to claim their place in the corpus of late Tianshun/early kiln site at Zhushan, Jingdezhen, see Lustre Revealed: Jingdezhen
Chenghua porcelain wares. Porcelain Wares in Mid Fifteenth Century China, Shanghai, 2019,
nos.17, 18, 21, 151, 153-155, and 159. Previous research by Julian
Each is delicately decorated in anhua around the cavetto with a pair Thompson, and as recently as 2016 by the Palace Museum, Beijing
of striding five-clawed dragons amidst cloud and fire scrolls pursuing and the Archaeological Research Institute of Ceramics in Jingdezhen,
flaming pearls. Each dish is superbly and evenly glazed overall, with attributed unmarked porcelains also to the Chenghua reign; for
a yellow glaze of egg-yolk tone applied over a transparent glaze with unmarked examples attributed to the Chenghua reign, see Imperial
some craquelure. The glaze stops neatly above the edge of the tall, Porcelains from the Reign of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty, vol.I,
slightly-tapered footring. The slightly-convex wide base is covered with Beijing, 2016, nos.32, 33, 36, 41, and 118. The current lack of any
an unctuous silky-smooth white glaze with a yellowish tinge around the archaeological evidence of production of monochrome yellow-glazed
edges. One dish measures 18.9cm diam. across the rim, 4.8cm high, porcelain during the ‘Interregnum’ period, therefore, supports the
the footring is 12cm diam., the foot height is 1.3cm; and the other dating of the present dishes to between the late Tianshun reign and
measures 18.8cm diam. across the rim, 4.9cm high, the footring is the early Chenghua reign.
12cm diam., the foot height is 1.3cm high.
The present dishes are each moulded around the interior cavetto in
As noted by Jessica Harrison-Hall, ‘yellow monochromes, it is anhua with a pair of dragons pursuing flaming pearl amidst fire and
believed, were reserved for the sole use of the Imperial court [...]; see cloud scrolls. Related moulded design of dragons could be seen as early
J.Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the as the Hongwu period; see a red-glazed bowl with a dragon design,
British Museum, London, 2001, p.186. In A Legacy of Chenghua: Hongwu, illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain Excavated
Imperial Porcelain of the Chenghua Reign Excavated from Zhushan, at Jingdezhen, Taipei, 1996, no.96. For a copper-red-glazed anhua
Jingdezhen, Hong Kong, 1993, nos.84-85, illustrating a yellow- dragon-decorated dish, Yongle, see J.Harrison-Hall, ibid., pp.104-105,
enamelled ‘dragon’ wine cup, Chenghua mark and period, the author no.3:12.; and for a white-glazed anhua dragon-decorated saucer-
notes: ‘A yellow-coloured dragon with five claws, as a decorative dish, Yongle, in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, see Pleasingly
motif, would have been restricted exclusively for decorating items for Pure and Lustrous: Porcelains from the Yongle Reign (1403-1424) of
the emperor’s personal use, thus accounting for the rarity of these the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 2017, pp.34-35. Compare a white-glazed
particular wine cups’. The same reasoning would also apply to the saucer-dish anhua decorated with two five-clawed dragons pursuing
present pair of dishes, equally decorated in yellow and with pairs of a flaming pearl, Yongle, in the Sir Percival David Collection, British
five-clawed dragons pursuing flaming pearls. Museum (PDF no.498); see also a white-glazed saucer-dish decorated
with two dragons pursuing a pearl, Xuande mark and period, illustrated
Yellow glazes were used in the Ming Imperial kilns from as early as in Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Monochrome Ware of
the Hongwu and Yongle reigns and continued through to the Xuande the Ming Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1968, vol.1, pls.2-2b; and a turquoise-
period. Whilst excavations at the Imperial kilns in Zhushan, Jingdezhen glazed anhua ‘dragons and cloud scrolls’ dish, Xuande mark and period,
of the strata dating to the ‘Interregnum’ period of the Zhengtong, also in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, illustrated in the Special
Jingtai and Tianshun emperors (1436-1464) have uncovered some Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty,
shards decorated with yellow enamel, no monochrome yellow-glazed Taipei, 1998, no.163. Anhua decoration continued throughout the 15th
shards were found to date; see Lustre Revealed: Jingdezhen Porcelain century as exemplified by two white-glazed cups decorated in anhua
Wares in Mid Fifteenth Century China, Shanghai, 2019, no.199 (for with a pair of dragons pursing a flaming pearl, Chenghua mark and of
shards with yellow enamel). However, it is not possible to exclude the the period, illustrated by Ts’ai Ho-Pi, Essential Collection of Cheng-hua
possibility that monochrome yellow-glazed dishes did exist during the Porcelain Ware from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2017, nos.69-
Zhengtong-Tianshun period, and perhaps future excavations will shed 70. Comparison of the dragons on the Chenghua-marked cup, ibid.,
further light on this aspect. Importantly, the production of yellow-glazed no.69, with the dragons on the present pair of dishes, demonstrates
monochrome porcelain is well documented during the Chenghua reign, clear similarities in the thickness of the body of the dragon and the
with some twenty monochrome yellow dishes, Chenghua mark and ‘stippling’ of the dragon-scales, fire-scrolls and the dragon’s head.

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