A VERY RARE MASSIVE MING BLUE AND WHITE 'DRAGON' JARDINIERE

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A VERY RARE MASSIVE MING BLUE AND WHITE 'DRAGON' JARDINIERE
LONGQING SIX-CHARACTER MARK AND OF THE PERIOD

Boldly painted in vibrant cobalt to the exterior with two pairs of coiled, five-clawed dragons in differing attitudes contesting a flaming pearl, each with antler-like horns, buldging eyes, long snout, and sinuous, scaly bodies, above a border of cresting waves divided by protruding rocks, amid trailing ruyi-shaped clouds, the rim encircled with a border of cash, the lip with a classic-scroll, the nianhao written to the interior below the rim (restored)
28 1/4 in. (72 cm.) diam., box

Lot Essay

It is extremely rare to find Longqing-marked pieces of this size and pattern.

Compare with a Jiajing mark and period fishbowl of this form painted with dragons included in the exhibtion, Selected Ceramics for the Collection of Mr. & Mrs. J.M. Hu, Shanghai Museum, 1989, Catalogue, no. 21; another illustrated in Ming Dai Taoci Daquan, p. 137; and a last from the Alder Manor collection included in our New York sale, 2 December 1993, lot 269.

(US$40,000-50,000)

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