TRANSITIONAL PERIOD, CIRCA 1650

It is very rare to find vases of this period and form decorated with dragons. A blue and white sleeve vase, dated c. 1650, decorated with a dragon writhing amidst flames beneath a band of rocky outcrops emerging from crashing waves encircling the neck, in the British Royal Collection at Hampton Court, is illustrated by M. Butler et al., Treasures from an Unknown Reign, Shunzhi Porcelain, 1644-1661, Honolulu Academy of Art, 2002, p. 92, fig. 1. Also illustrated, p. 108, no. 13, is a blue and white dish dated c. 1650-60, from the Butler Family Collection, which is decorated with a landscape scene with a qilin painted in a similar bold manner as the dragon on the present vase.