WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)

Details

A RARE GREEN AND YELLOW-GLAZED 'DRAGON' JAR
WANLI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE WITHIN A DOUBLE CIRCLE AND OF THE PERIOD (1573-1619)
The ovoid jar is decorated with four shaped panels of five-clawed dragons leaping amidst flames and chasing a flaming pearl above rocks and waves, each separated by the bajixiang (Eight Buddhist Emblems), all beneath a lappet border on the shoulder.
6 ¾ in. (17.1 cm.) high

Provenance

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accessioned in 1923 (Rogers Fund).

Literature

S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989 ed., p. 190, no. 186.

Sale room notice

Please note that the present lot is illustrated in Oriental Ceramics: the World’s Great Collections, vol. 12: Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1982, no. 96.

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Lot Essay

Compare the present jar with a number of related yellow-and green-glazed Wanli-marked jars decorated with dragons enclosed within barbed cartouches, including one from the Yokogawa collection illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Greatest Collections, Vol. 1, Tokyo National Museum, 1982, no. 124, and another in the Baur collection, Geneva illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, Vol. 2, Geneva, 1969, no. A208.

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