A BLUE AND WHITE 'DRAGON AND TIGER' JAR

SHUNZHI PERIOD, CIRCA 1650-1660

Details

A BLUE AND WHITE 'DRAGON AND TIGER' JAR
SHUNZHI PERIOD, CIRCA 1650-1660
The jar is of compressed ovoid form with short neck and is decorated on one side with an animated tiger crouching on a flat rock. The reverse is decorated with a bold five-clawed dragon pursuing a flaming pearl, amidst vaporous clouds and waves The jar is mounted with a pair of metal bail handles.
7 ¼ in. (18.2 cm.) high, wood cover

Provenance

Spink & Son, Ltd., London, 1984.
Collection of Julia and John Curtis.

Brought to you by

Margaret Gristina

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Lot Essay

The combination of the long-tailed tiger and the scaly dragon emerging from clouds appears to have been a popular theme on a variety of porcelain shapes produced during the Transitional period. For an ovoid jar and cover with a dragon and similar tiger to the present example, see S. Marchant & Son, Exhibition of Chinese Blue and White – Wan Li to K’ang Hsi, 1980, no. 50. The two animals also appear, together with the kylin and phoenix, on a vase in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, illustrated by Michael Butler, Julia B. Curtis and Stephen Little in Shunzhi Porcelain: Treasures from an Unknown Reign, 1644-1661, Alexandria, VA, 2002, p. 99, no.7. Also see lot 3546 in this catalogue for a wucai beaker vase decorated with this theme and a discussion of its Daoist undertones.

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