KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1772)

It is very unusual to find dragon motifs on vases of this gu-shape as they are commonly painted with landscape or floral scenes. This type of lively upright dragon is comparable to meiping vases that have each been decorated with a single dragon: the first in the Palace Museum Collection, illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 23, no. 6; and the other from the J.M. Hu and Robert Chang collections was sold at Christie's Hong Kong Kong, 28 November 2006, lot 1317. Compare also to a Kangxi-marked baluster vase painted with two upright four-clawed dragons with similar fierce expressions as those on the current vase, in the Shanghai Museum Collection illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, no. 20.