Page 49 - 2019 October Important Chinese Art Sotheby's Hong Kong

fig. 1
Blue and white ‘dragon’ stem bowl, mark and period of Xuande
© Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing
圖一
明宣德 青花海水龍紋高足盌 《大明宣德年製》款
© 北京故宮博物院藏

National Museum of China. Ciqi juan [Porcelain section]: jacket of the Xiling collection catalogue (Xiling Collection,
Mingdai [Ming dynasty], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 40; and a third, n.p., 2011, cat. no. 15).
from the Meiyintang collection and included in Regina Krahl, Stem bowls with deep blue dragons on pale blue waves were
Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, also made with a larger number of smaller dragons; see a
1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1662, was sold at Christie’s Hong piece with five animals in the British Museum, London, in
Kong, 27th April 1997, lot 71 and in these rooms, 4th April Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum,
2012, lot 29.
London, 2001, no. 4:14; another in Taiwan included in the
A variant of the design has fewer rocks around the foot and a Museum’s 1998 exhibition, op.cit., cat. no. 109; for one with
narrow border of curly ripples instead; a piece of that pattern nine dragons in Toronto see Royal Ontario Museum. The T.T.
in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is published in Mingdai Tsui Galleries of Chinese Art, Toronto, 1996, pl. 104.
Xuande yuyao ciqi/Imperial Porcelains from the Reign of A similar effect, using softly shaded waves as a backdrop,
Xuande in the Ming Dynasty, Beijing, 2015, pl. 28 (fig. 1); was also employed on other shapes and designs; a dish with
one in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in two similar blue dragons among waves on the outside, and
Mingdai Xuande guanyao jinghua tezhan tulu /Catalogue a single blue and two anhua dragons inside is in the National
of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Imperial Palace Museum, Taipei, also included in the Museum’s
Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 108 Xuande exhibition 1998, op.cit., cat. no. 187, together with
(fig. 2); one, with the anhua inside either lacking or virtually a stem cup with fabulous sea creatures among pale waves,
invisible, is in the Musée Guimet, Paris, from the Grandidier cat. no. 74, both of Xuande mark and period. Fragmentary
collection, see Xavier Besse, La Chine des porcelaines, Paris, stem cups with fabulous sea creatures, and bowls with fish
2004, pl. 11; and another from the Xiling collection, at times among water plants, both with pale wave backgrounds, have
on display at the Nelson Atkins Museum, Kansas City, was been excavated from the kiln site at Jingdezhen and included
sold twice in these rooms, 28th April 1992, lot 32, and 9th in the exhibition Jingdezhen chutu Ming Xuande guanyao ciqi
October 2007, lot 1552, and once at Christie’s Hong Kong /Xuande Imperial Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang
30th November 2016, lot 3310, and is illustrated on the dust
Foundation, Taipei, 1998, cat. nos.51-1 and 102-1.