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Lot Essay
The present guan appears to be unique in its decoration although it can be linked to other known vessels, either excavated or from important collections around the world.
Its closest relative in decorative technique is the celebrated octagonal meiping excavated from a hoard at Baoding in 1964 and now in the Hebei Provincial Museum. Like the present guan, this vase employs the time-consuming and rare technique for the depiction of dragons and waves whereby the details of the scales have been skillfully carved into the porcelain body with only the outlines and the eyes painted in cobalt blue. Similarly, the slightly blue-green tinged transparent glaze has run into the carved details on the dragons, pooling enough to emphasise the scales and flames. The dragons appear reserved against a background of turbulent waves, which are painted with outlined crests while swells and eddies are depicted using fluent striations. The meiping is illustrated by Margaret Medley, Yüan Porcelain and Stoneware, London, 1974, pl. 40; in Toji Taikei, vol. 41, Tokyo, 1974, pl. 6 and figs. 2 and 3; and in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 13, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 57. See also the tantalising sherd, including a glimpse of a similarly striding dragon's body in the same technique, excavated at Fostat, Egypt, illustrated in Toji Taikei, vol. 41, fig. 93.
The ground of turbulent waves of this type occurs on a lavish dish of the period where it offsets elaborate ruyi panels, see M. Medley, op. cit., pl. 27. A simpler version with eddies but no breaking nor cresting waves in conjunction with moulded peonies left in reserve is illustrated by Ayers and Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapy Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, London, 1986, p. 392, col. pl. 561.
A small Yuan jar decorated with a striding dragon in reserve on a copper red ground is illustrated in Underglaze Blue and Red, Hong Kong, 1987, col. pl. 24. Yuan jars painted with dragons in blue on a white ground are also rare and none has been published with dragon-fish handles as in the present example. A jar with mask handles and a striding dragon as the principle band of decoration is illustrated in idem., col. pl. 10 and another in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, 1980, col. pl. 43, from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Fish handles are perhaps the rarest option. Masks, elephants and double chi dragons are more frequently found. The handles of the present jar are elaborate, well-modelled and well-painted with great attention to detail. A jar of the same form and with similar dragon-fish handles is in the collection of the British Museum, illustrated by A. du Boulay, Chinese Porcelain, London, 1973 edition, pl. 30. The British Museum example shares the same phoenix and qilin shoulder band and petal panels around the foot, but all other decorative bands are different and the main band is a peony scroll painted in blue on white, rather than reserved.
The depiction of dragons in reserve on a wave ground provides a prototype for vases of the early Ming period and later. Examples are illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, London, 1986, p. 419, col. pl. 615 and Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 4, 1980, col. pl. 56, from the Iran Bastan Museum, Teheran.
Its closest relative in decorative technique is the celebrated octagonal meiping excavated from a hoard at Baoding in 1964 and now in the Hebei Provincial Museum. Like the present guan, this vase employs the time-consuming and rare technique for the depiction of dragons and waves whereby the details of the scales have been skillfully carved into the porcelain body with only the outlines and the eyes painted in cobalt blue. Similarly, the slightly blue-green tinged transparent glaze has run into the carved details on the dragons, pooling enough to emphasise the scales and flames. The dragons appear reserved against a background of turbulent waves, which are painted with outlined crests while swells and eddies are depicted using fluent striations. The meiping is illustrated by Margaret Medley, Yüan Porcelain and Stoneware, London, 1974, pl. 40; in Toji Taikei, vol. 41, Tokyo, 1974, pl. 6 and figs. 2 and 3; and in Sekai Toji Zenshu, vol. 13, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 57. See also the tantalising sherd, including a glimpse of a similarly striding dragon's body in the same technique, excavated at Fostat, Egypt, illustrated in Toji Taikei, vol. 41, fig. 93.
The ground of turbulent waves of this type occurs on a lavish dish of the period where it offsets elaborate ruyi panels, see M. Medley, op. cit., pl. 27. A simpler version with eddies but no breaking nor cresting waves in conjunction with moulded peonies left in reserve is illustrated by Ayers and Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapy Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, London, 1986, p. 392, col. pl. 561.
A small Yuan jar decorated with a striding dragon in reserve on a copper red ground is illustrated in Underglaze Blue and Red, Hong Kong, 1987, col. pl. 24. Yuan jars painted with dragons in blue on a white ground are also rare and none has been published with dragon-fish handles as in the present example. A jar with mask handles and a striding dragon as the principle band of decoration is illustrated in idem., col. pl. 10 and another in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 10, 1980, col. pl. 43, from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Fish handles are perhaps the rarest option. Masks, elephants and double chi dragons are more frequently found. The handles of the present jar are elaborate, well-modelled and well-painted with great attention to detail. A jar of the same form and with similar dragon-fish handles is in the collection of the British Museum, illustrated by A. du Boulay, Chinese Porcelain, London, 1973 edition, pl. 30. The British Museum example shares the same phoenix and qilin shoulder band and petal panels around the foot, but all other decorative bands are different and the main band is a peony scroll painted in blue on white, rather than reserved.
The depiction of dragons in reserve on a wave ground provides a prototype for vases of the early Ming period and later. Examples are illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. II, London, 1986, p. 419, col. pl. 615 and Oriental Ceramics, The World's Great Collections, vol. 4, 1980, col. pl. 56, from the Iran Bastan Museum, Teheran.