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Lot Essay
Large-scale eighteenth-century vases decorated in the doucai palette are very unusual. It is even more rare to find a pair, such as the present lot. Another rare, large doucai tianqiuping decorated with a dragon and phoenix from the Sui Yuan Zhai collection, was sold at Christie’s London, 11 May 2015, lot 32.
The decorative scheme of nine dragons in different writhing positions, centered around a forward-facing dragon, can be found on other 18th-century vases, such as a green and yellow-glazed meiping and cover illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Miscellaneous Enamelled Porcelains, Plain Tricoloured Porcelains, Hong Kong, 2009, pp. 126-29, no. 104, where it is dated to the Qianlong period. The dragons on the present pair of vases, however, are rendered in a more spirited manner than those on the aforementioned meiping, and display exaggerated, slender necks, large, confident claws and energetic poses.
The most prestigious decorative motif seen in the three-dimensional arts made for the Chinese imperial court in the Qing dynasty is the Imperial dragon - the symbol of the Son of Heaven, the Emperor himself. The horned, five-clawed, long dragon is depicted on the present pair nine times; nine was a number reserved for the emperor - being the largest single digit number. Dragons were often specifically associated with the number nine and it was believed that the dragon had nine attributes and also had nine sons. It was also thought that its body had 117 scales - a multiple of nine (9 x 13) of which 81 were yang scales (9 x 9) and 36 were yin scales (9 x 4). This ritual association between the imperial dragon and the number nine can be found on imperial objects across many different media.
The decorative scheme of nine dragons in different writhing positions, centered around a forward-facing dragon, can be found on other 18th-century vases, such as a green and yellow-glazed meiping and cover illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - Miscellaneous Enamelled Porcelains, Plain Tricoloured Porcelains, Hong Kong, 2009, pp. 126-29, no. 104, where it is dated to the Qianlong period. The dragons on the present pair of vases, however, are rendered in a more spirited manner than those on the aforementioned meiping, and display exaggerated, slender necks, large, confident claws and energetic poses.
The most prestigious decorative motif seen in the three-dimensional arts made for the Chinese imperial court in the Qing dynasty is the Imperial dragon - the symbol of the Son of Heaven, the Emperor himself. The horned, five-clawed, long dragon is depicted on the present pair nine times; nine was a number reserved for the emperor - being the largest single digit number. Dragons were often specifically associated with the number nine and it was believed that the dragon had nine attributes and also had nine sons. It was also thought that its body had 117 scales - a multiple of nine (9 x 13) of which 81 were yang scales (9 x 9) and 36 were yin scales (9 x 4). This ritual association between the imperial dragon and the number nine can be found on imperial objects across many different media.