YUAN DYNASTY (1279-1368)

The dragon on this dish bears characteristics of dragons found on earlier works of art on Tang and Song dynasty art, such as the slender curved neck and pointed agape mouth, while displaying traits seen on later Ming and Qing dynasty dragons with a robust body and well-delineated scales. Compare to a very similar dish of larger size (35 cm.), also decorated with a dragon and flaming pearl in the centre surrounded by a peony scroll, from a tomb in Weichang County, Hebei province and now housed in the Weichang County Museum (fig. 1), illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan: Taoci juan (Complete Masterpieces of Chinese Cultural Relics: Ceramics Volume), Hong Kong, 1993, p. 337, pl. 569. Another bowl decorated with a very similar three-clawed dragon is in the collection of Capital Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhu Yuping, Yuandai Qinghua ci, Shanghai, 2000, no. 40.