An Iron-decorated Porcelain Dragon Jar - Choson period (17th-18th century)

Of lantern form resting on a raised circular foot and with a short, upright neck and angled, extended rim, decorated in underglaze iron-oxide with a three-clawed dragon chasing a flaming pearl amongst scalloped clouds, the scales of the dragon rendered with dark dabs of iron-oxide, some burnt rust in the firing, and the spikes on the spine freely drawn in zig-zag lines, the jar also applied with a transparent glaze with bluish tint where more thick and with dense crackle, foot rim and recessed base unglazed.
12 13/16in. (32.6cm.) high; 13 3/16in. (33.5cm.) diameter - Estimate: 50,000 - 60,000 U.S. dollars

Notes: For other jars, see Richo toji 500-nen no bi/Glory of Korean Pottery and Porcelain of the Yi Dynasty, exh. cat. (Osaka: Museum of Oriental Ceramics, 1987), pl. 112; Richo tessha ten/White Porcelain of Underglazed Iron-brown, Yi Dynasty, Korea, exh. cat. (Osaka: Museum of Oriental Ceramics, 1986), no. 6; Masterpieces of the Ho-Am Art Museum (Seoul: Samsung Art and Culture Foundation, 1982), pl. 130; Rhee Byung-chang, Richo toji/Yi Ceramics, in Kankoku bijutsu shusen/Masterpieces of Korean Art (Tokyo: Privately published, 1978), no. 336; G. St. G. M. Gompertz, Korean Pottery and Porcelain of the Yi Period (London: Faber and Faber, 1968), no. 69.

Christie's. Japanese & Korean Art. 18 March 2008. 20 Rockefeller Plaza, New York