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Lot Essay
This powerful five-clawed dragon, depicted amidst scrolling clouds and flames and reaching towards a central shou medallion, belongs to a distinctive group of exceptionally large imperial blue and white dishes produced during the Yongzheng and Qianlong reigns. Combining the dragon, the supreme emblem of imperial authority, with the shou character for longevity, the design carries strong auspicious connotations and was particularly appropriate for important court celebrations and imperial banquets.
The present dish represents an especially refined Yongzheng interpretation of the design. The Yongzheng reign lasted only thirteen years, and Tang Ying (1682–1756), the celebrated imperial kiln supervisor, was sent to Jingdezhen to assist in the management of porcelain production in 1728, the sixth year of the reign. His Taocheng jishi bei records the annual production of some 16,000 to 17,000 pieces for imperial use. By comparison, production expanded considerably under the Qianlong Emperor: records for the sixth year of his reign note more than 40,000 unfired vessels prepared in a single production cycle. Such figures provide an indication of the very different scale of imperial porcelain manufacture under the two reigns.
Yongzheng examples of this monumental dragon design are distinguished by the exceptional refinement and spontaneity of their painting. The composition is spacious and animated, the dragons and clouds rendered with a fluidity that contrasts with the increasingly regularised treatment found on later Qianlong examples. Particularly characteristic is the treatment of the waves around the rim, where the design makes sophisticated use of the white porcelain body against the cobalt blue. The blue itself is deep yet restrained, contributing to the elegant and almost painterly quality associated with the finest Yongzheng imperial porcelains. Qianlong examples, generally bearing six-character seal marks, tend towards a more structured and meticulously ordered composition, with more regular cloud formations and waves and a brighter cobalt palette. Where the Yongzheng examples are remarkable for their painterly vitality and elegance, their Qianlong successors place greater emphasis on technical precision and formal regularity.
An almost identical Yongzheng-marked dish, likewise measuring 44.8 cm in diameter, formerly in the celebrated T. Y. Chao Family Trust, no. 78, was sold at Christie’s New York, 21 March 2024, lot 836. It had previously been sold from The T.Y. Chao Private and Family Trust Collections of Important Chinese Ceramics and Jade Carvings: Part I, Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 18 November 1986, lot 80. The dish was also published in Ch’ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Hong Kong, 1973, cat. no. 61, and exhibited at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1973–74 and at the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 1978.
Other Yongzheng examples of this rare type are preserved in important institutional collections, including a closely related dish in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, illustrated in K. Vollmer and Nagai-Berthong, Silk Roads-China Ships, Toronto, 1983, p. 229, and another in the National Museum of China, illustrated in Zhongguo guojia bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu – ciqi juan – Qing dai, Shanghai, 2007, p. 62, no. 38.
The design continued into the Qianlong reign. A closely related Qianlong-marked dish, measuring 44.5 cm in diameter, was sold at Sotheby’s London, Important Chinese Art, 4 November 2020, lot 176. Other Qianlong examples include those sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 April 2000, lot 599, and Christie’s New York, 25 March 2011, lot 1667, as well as an example formerly in the Gulexuan Collection.
The continuation of the design from the Yongzheng into the Qianlong reign attests to its enduring importance within the repertoire of the Qing imperial kilns. The considerably rarer Yongzheng examples, however, represent an earlier and particularly refined expression of the type, distinguished by their freer brushwork, restrained palette and painterly elegance, before the design assumed the more technically precise and formally ordered character associated with Qianlong imperial production.
The present dish represents an especially refined Yongzheng interpretation of the design. The Yongzheng reign lasted only thirteen years, and Tang Ying (1682–1756), the celebrated imperial kiln supervisor, was sent to Jingdezhen to assist in the management of porcelain production in 1728, the sixth year of the reign. His Taocheng jishi bei records the annual production of some 16,000 to 17,000 pieces for imperial use. By comparison, production expanded considerably under the Qianlong Emperor: records for the sixth year of his reign note more than 40,000 unfired vessels prepared in a single production cycle. Such figures provide an indication of the very different scale of imperial porcelain manufacture under the two reigns.
Yongzheng examples of this monumental dragon design are distinguished by the exceptional refinement and spontaneity of their painting. The composition is spacious and animated, the dragons and clouds rendered with a fluidity that contrasts with the increasingly regularised treatment found on later Qianlong examples. Particularly characteristic is the treatment of the waves around the rim, where the design makes sophisticated use of the white porcelain body against the cobalt blue. The blue itself is deep yet restrained, contributing to the elegant and almost painterly quality associated with the finest Yongzheng imperial porcelains. Qianlong examples, generally bearing six-character seal marks, tend towards a more structured and meticulously ordered composition, with more regular cloud formations and waves and a brighter cobalt palette. Where the Yongzheng examples are remarkable for their painterly vitality and elegance, their Qianlong successors place greater emphasis on technical precision and formal regularity.
An almost identical Yongzheng-marked dish, likewise measuring 44.8 cm in diameter, formerly in the celebrated T. Y. Chao Family Trust, no. 78, was sold at Christie’s New York, 21 March 2024, lot 836. It had previously been sold from The T.Y. Chao Private and Family Trust Collections of Important Chinese Ceramics and Jade Carvings: Part I, Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 18 November 1986, lot 80. The dish was also published in Ch’ing Porcelain from the Wah Kwong Collection, Hong Kong, 1973, cat. no. 61, and exhibited at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1973–74 and at the Hong Kong Museum of Art in 1978.
Other Yongzheng examples of this rare type are preserved in important institutional collections, including a closely related dish in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, illustrated in K. Vollmer and Nagai-Berthong, Silk Roads-China Ships, Toronto, 1983, p. 229, and another in the National Museum of China, illustrated in Zhongguo guojia bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu – ciqi juan – Qing dai, Shanghai, 2007, p. 62, no. 38.
The design continued into the Qianlong reign. A closely related Qianlong-marked dish, measuring 44.5 cm in diameter, was sold at Sotheby’s London, Important Chinese Art, 4 November 2020, lot 176. Other Qianlong examples include those sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 30 April 2000, lot 599, and Christie’s New York, 25 March 2011, lot 1667, as well as an example formerly in the Gulexuan Collection.
The continuation of the design from the Yongzheng into the Qianlong reign attests to its enduring importance within the repertoire of the Qing imperial kilns. The considerably rarer Yongzheng examples, however, represent an earlier and particularly refined expression of the type, distinguished by their freer brushwork, restrained palette and painterly elegance, before the design assumed the more technically precise and formally ordered character associated with Qianlong imperial production.