JIAJING SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE RECTANGLE IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1522-1566)

Details

A MASSIVE BLUE AND WHITE ‘DRAGON’ DISH
JIAJING SIX-CHARACTER MARK WITHIN A DOUBLE RECTANGLE IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1522-1566)
The dish is painted with a medallion on the centre of the interior with an ascending dragon and descending dragon in pursuit of a flaming pearl amidst clouds and above foaming waves. The exterior is painted with nine dragons in various attitudes above waves, with four pairs confronted on a flaming pearl. The reign mark is inscribed within a double-rectangle below the mouth rim on the exterior. The base is unglazed.
22 7/8 in. (58 cm.) diam., box

Provenance

Sold at Christie’s London, 16 November 1999, lot 187

Brought to you by

Marco Almeida (安偉達) SVP, Senior International Specialist, Head of Department & Head of Private Sales

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Lot Essay

It is very rare to find such large Jiajing-marked dishes painted with a pair of dragons on the interior and nine dragons on the exterior. Compare a smaller dish (49.2 cm. diam.) painted with a similar design, but in a slightly different arrangement from the collection of Dr Ip Yee, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 19 November 1984, lot 185; a smaller dish (50 cm. diam.) painted with a single dragon on the interior, and a pair of dragons on the exterior in the Topkapi Saray Museum, illustrated by J. Ayers and R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Vol.II, no.923; and a dish of similar size (57.5 cm. diam.) painted with cranes in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red (II), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 131, no. 121.

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