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Lot Essay
The present jar, guan, richly painted in cobalt-blue is the epitome of the best quality underglaze-blue ceramics that were produced in the Yuan period. One of the most unique features of the present jar is the impressive use of dragons as the principal decorative band on the globular body, thereby confining all the minor registers to the shoulder, neck and the lower body.
Of the few published examples of these jars designed with dragons as a major motif on the body, the closest comparable jar is the guan discovered in 1980 from the Gao'an hoard, Jiangxi province, illustrated by Wang Qing-Zheng, Underglaze Blue and Red, Shanghai Museum, 1987, p. 27, no. 10; and again by Zhu Yuping, Yuandai Qinghua Qi, wenhui chubanshe, pp. 52-55, with details of the neck, illustrated fig. 3-4d and the monster-masks, figs. 3-4e and f. The Gao'an example is decorated with similar striding dragons within a comparatively narrower band, dividing a register of bajixiang within pendent lappets at the shoulder and a further band of scrolling peony below the mid-body (illustrated fig. 1). Although the present jar lacks the bajixiang band on the shoulder, it does provide additional space for the artist to apply the dragons, and given a wider area these mythical creatures appear more dramatic and powerfully intense.
Dragons of the Yuan period are particularly distinctive as they often appear with relatively small heads, antler-like horns, bulging eyes and long snouts. Compare with striding dragons painted on the well-known pair of 'David Vases', dated to 1351, illustrated by R. Scott, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1989, p. 67, no. 55; and upright dragons on a 'pilgrim' flask, formerly from the Sir Harry Garner collection, now in the F. Gordon Morrill collection, offered by Messrs Doyle, New York, 16 September 2003, lot 74. The necks of these mythical creatures are characteristically narrow and their bodies widen between the fore and hind legs. As these mythical creatures are portrayed with their mouths agape exposing protruding tongues, their expressions are often lively and quizzical. It is interesting to note that dragons painted on the ceramic examples cited above are comparable to those depicted on Song and Yuan textiles, cf. the dragon embroidered on a costume of a Buddhist guardian figure, in the Museum of History, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, textiles, vol. 7, 1987, p. 21, no. 22; and also on a kesi dated to the Northern Song dynasty, illustrated in Possessing the Past - Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, New York, 1996, p. 250, pl. 128.
Compare a similar jar designed with forward and backward-looking dragons, previously sold in our Tokyo Rooms, 27 May 1969, lot 179, and later in the Ataka Collection, illustrated by T. Nakano, The Panoramic views of Chinese Patterns, Japan, 1985, col. pl. 9. Compared to the Gao'an guan, the Ataka jar shares almost identical decorative bands with exception of the scrolling pomegranate design rather than bajixiang at the shoulder, and the moulded monster-masks are painted with a cobalt-wash instead of the pencil-line drawing as with the present jar.
Two other published jars are also decorated with dragon motifs, the first from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated by Zhu Yuping, op. cit., p. 71, fig. 3-16, where the dragons are painted on the body beneath a band of ruyi-head (illustrated fig. 2); and other other jar in the Topkapi Saray is designed with a minor band of striding dragons on the shoulder, illustrated by J. Ayers (ed.), Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, London, 1986, vol. II, p. 407, col. no. 586.
Of the few published examples of these jars designed with dragons as a major motif on the body, the closest comparable jar is the guan discovered in 1980 from the Gao'an hoard, Jiangxi province, illustrated by Wang Qing-Zheng, Underglaze Blue and Red, Shanghai Museum, 1987, p. 27, no. 10; and again by Zhu Yuping, Yuandai Qinghua Qi, wenhui chubanshe, pp. 52-55, with details of the neck, illustrated fig. 3-4d and the monster-masks, figs. 3-4e and f. The Gao'an example is decorated with similar striding dragons within a comparatively narrower band, dividing a register of bajixiang within pendent lappets at the shoulder and a further band of scrolling peony below the mid-body (illustrated fig. 1). Although the present jar lacks the bajixiang band on the shoulder, it does provide additional space for the artist to apply the dragons, and given a wider area these mythical creatures appear more dramatic and powerfully intense.
Dragons of the Yuan period are particularly distinctive as they often appear with relatively small heads, antler-like horns, bulging eyes and long snouts. Compare with striding dragons painted on the well-known pair of 'David Vases', dated to 1351, illustrated by R. Scott, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1989, p. 67, no. 55; and upright dragons on a 'pilgrim' flask, formerly from the Sir Harry Garner collection, now in the F. Gordon Morrill collection, offered by Messrs Doyle, New York, 16 September 2003, lot 74. The necks of these mythical creatures are characteristically narrow and their bodies widen between the fore and hind legs. As these mythical creatures are portrayed with their mouths agape exposing protruding tongues, their expressions are often lively and quizzical. It is interesting to note that dragons painted on the ceramic examples cited above are comparable to those depicted on Song and Yuan textiles, cf. the dragon embroidered on a costume of a Buddhist guardian figure, in the Museum of History, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo Meishu Quanji, textiles, vol. 7, 1987, p. 21, no. 22; and also on a kesi dated to the Northern Song dynasty, illustrated in Possessing the Past - Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, New York, 1996, p. 250, pl. 128.
Compare a similar jar designed with forward and backward-looking dragons, previously sold in our Tokyo Rooms, 27 May 1969, lot 179, and later in the Ataka Collection, illustrated by T. Nakano, The Panoramic views of Chinese Patterns, Japan, 1985, col. pl. 9. Compared to the Gao'an guan, the Ataka jar shares almost identical decorative bands with exception of the scrolling pomegranate design rather than bajixiang at the shoulder, and the moulded monster-masks are painted with a cobalt-wash instead of the pencil-line drawing as with the present jar.
Two other published jars are also decorated with dragon motifs, the first from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, illustrated by Zhu Yuping, op. cit., p. 71, fig. 3-16, where the dragons are painted on the body beneath a band of ruyi-head (illustrated fig. 2); and other other jar in the Topkapi Saray is designed with a minor band of striding dragons on the shoulder, illustrated by J. Ayers (ed.), Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, London, 1986, vol. II, p. 407, col. no. 586.