Lot 39. A Rare Yellow-Ground Iron-Red Enamelled Stem Cup. Mark and Period of Jiajing (1522-1566); 9.2 cm., 3 5/8 in. Estimate 4,000,000-6,000,000 HKD. Lot Sold: 10,180,000 HKD (1,307,926 USD). Photo Sotheby's

the deep rounded sides resting on a flared foot and rising to an everted rim, the exterior finely enamelled with iron-red outlines painted over in a brighter iron-red on a rich yellow ground with two striding five-clawed dragons in mutual pursuit divided by cloud scrolls below the rim, above six cranes in mid-flight among swirling clouds above a lotus lappet border, with further cranes flying above a band of overlapping upright leaves on the stem, the interior painted in underglaze blue with a central shou character enclosed within a double circle below a double band at the rim, the base with a six-character mark in underglaze-blue.

Provenance: Collection of a Japanese Pharmaceutical Company.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 10th April 2006, lot 1783.

Literature: Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1685.

Note: Since the Jiajing Emperor was a keen supporter of Daoist ideas, Daoist motifs proliferate in this period. The combination seen here, of imperial five-clawed dragons with Daoist motifs – cranes as a symbol of long life – is, however, most unusual. Two-colour glaze combinations are also characteristic of the Jiajing reign, but red pieces with designs reserved in yellow are more common than yellow vessels with red decoration, and the combination with underglaze blue is also exceptional.

Compare a small bowl of Jiajing mark and period from the George Eumorfopoulos collection, now in the British Museum, London, painted in a similar colour combination with a dragon on the inside and boys in a garden setting on the outside, published in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no. 9:91, together with an oblong Jiajing box from the Oscar Raphael collection, painted with cranes and trigrams in red on yellow, no. 9:92.

Sotheby's. The Meiyintang Collection, Part II - An Important Selection of Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong 5 october 2011