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PROPERTY FROM A CANADIAN PRIVATE COLLECTION was sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 29th May 2013, lot 2028.
A VERY RARE GREEN-ENAMELED ‘DRAGON’ Another closely related Daoguang vase of the same form
BOTTLE VASE and design, but painted in black enamel, in the collection of
the Seikadō Bunko Art Museum, Tokyo, was included in the
DAOGUANG SEAL MARK AND PERIOD exhibition Seikadō zō Shinchō tōji. Keitokuchin kanyō no bi
[Qing dynasty porcelain collected in the Seikado. Beauty of
finely potted with the slightly compressed globular body Jingdezhen imperial kilns], Tokyo, 2006, cat. no. 75.
rising from a short, straight foot to a tall cylindrical neck
flaring at the rim, decorated around the exterior with five From the Kangxi period (1662-1722) onwards, green-
scaly dragons each in different postures among cloud wisps enameled dragons chasing ‘Flaming Pearls’, painted with
in pursuit of a ‘Flaming Pearl’, the interior of the mouth and underglaze-blue outlines and black details, can be found
base enameled in turquoise, the latter centered with an iron- on covered jars; a Daoguang mark and period example is
red six-character seal mark reserved in a white square preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei (accession
Height 11 in., 27.9 cm no. 故-瓷-008825). Another jar of this type and period,
exhibited in the Roemer Museum, Hildesheim, Germany, in
PROVENANCE 1899, sold in these rooms, 21st March 2018, lot 549; and a
Collection of Dr. P. Franklin, acquired between the late 1940s pair of such jars sold in the same rooms, 18th September
and 1950s (by repute). 2007, lot 283. For a Kangxi precedent of this design see a
jar in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Wang Liying,
This elegantly shaped vase with its green-enameled dragon ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang wenwu zhenpin quanji. Wucai,
motif represents a particularly rare example of Daoguang doucai / The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace
period (1821-1850) imperial porcelain bearing this motif. Museum. Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours,
The pattern was first created during the Chenghua period Hong Kong, 1999, pl. 190.
(1465-1487) and remained popular throughout the Ming
(1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Ming dynasty
ceramicists typically incised the dragons on the reserved ⊖ $ 100,000-150,000
biscuit clay before enameling the animals in green; Qing
ceramicists, on the other hand, painted the enameled 清道光 綠彩五龍戲珠紋長頸瓶
dragons on top of a layer of transparent glaze. Among the
various types of ‘green dragon’ wares produced over the 《大清道光年製》款
centuries, such as jars, bowls and dishes, there is only one
other vase known to exist, which also bears a Daoguang 來源
seal mark and is of the period. That vase, formerly in the P. Franklin 醫生收藏，得於1940年代末至1950年代之
Yiqingge Collection, is identical to the present example, and
間 (傳)

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