Page 234 - Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art II

2372 (mark)
A VERY RARE BLUE AND WHITE HEXAGONAL ‘DRAGON’ JAR
JIAJING SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN DOUBLE-CIRCLES AND OF THE PERIOD
(1522-1566)

The six sides of the faceted baluster body are decorated in inky tones of underglaze blue with
fve-clawed dragons leaping amidst lotus scroll, the fowers borne on leafy, penciled stems,
above a petal-lappet border and beneath panels decorated with a fower roundel framed by
clouds below a band of classic scroll on the neck and a blue line on the molded rim.
10Ω in. (26.7 cm.) high, Japanese wood box

$350,000-450,000

PROVENANCE:

Christie’s London, 19 June 1967, lot 87.
Mayuyama & Co. Ltd., Tokyo.

LITERATURE:

Toji Taikei, vol. 42, Min no Sometsuke, Ryoichi Fujioka (ed.), Tokyo, 1975, p. 69, no. 79.
Mayuyama Seventy Years, Vol. 1, Mayuyama & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, 1976, no. 861.
A. Du Boulay, Christie’s Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, New Jersey, 1984, p. 128, pl. 4.

No other jar of this hexagonal shape, with similar decoration and Jiajing mark, appears to be
published. However, very similar lotus scroll can be seen surrounding leaping dragons on the facets
of a blue and white jar of square baluster shape, with Jiajing mark, illustrated by R. L. Hobson in The
George Eumorfopoulos Collection Catalogue, vol. 4, The Ming Dynasty, London, 1927, pl. V, no. D 25.
This latter jar also has a band of petal lappets that rise from the foot, and has a similar mouth rim.

明嘉靖 青花龍穿花紋六棱瓶 雙圈六字楷書款

(another view) The present jar, as illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy
Years, Vol. 1, Mayuyama & Co. Ltd., Tokyo, 1976,
no. 861.

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