Lot 401. A large and rare cloisonne enamel 'dragon' vase, tianqiuping. Qing dynasty, Qianlong period. Estimate 400,000-600,000 GBP. Lot Sold: 361,250 GBP. Photo Sotheby's

the globular body rising from a low gilt foot with concave base to a slightly flared broad tall neck, vibrantly enamelled around the body with a large dark blue ferocious dragon in pursuit of a flaming pearl, its spiny back, belly, horns and claws all in white and its bristling mane in green, all amidst swirling polychrome clouds and reserved on a turquoise ground: 58cm., 22 3/4 in. 

PROVENANCE: Sotheby's London, 12th June 1990, lot 52.

NOTE: The present cloisonné enamel tianqiuping is impressive for its magnificent size and spectacular decoration of a large ferocious scaly five-clawed dragon swirling among multi-coloured clouds chasing a flaming pearl. No other similar example appears to be recorded, although the type is known from a similarly large cloisonné vase of this form decorated with lotus scroll design, from the Laurent Héliot collection sold twice at Christie's London, 11th December 1989, lot 260, and again, 9th June 1997, lot 277, and a third time in these rooms, 13th July 2005, lot 213. See also a smaller vase of this shape decorated with butterflies among large blooming flowers on a turquoise-ground, from the Qing Court collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, Hong Kong, 2002, pl. 97.

It was during the reign of the Qianlong emperor that the production of cloisonné enamel wares reached new heights. The technical mastery characteristic of Qianlong's reign and the significant increase in the number of palette used, which included more than twenty opaque colours, made it possible to manufacture pieces with elegantly crafted bodies and thick layers of enamel that made them solid and heavy. As Béatrice Quette mentions, 'all manner of forms were produced in unprecedentedly large sizes, especially in the case of imperial commissions'; see Quette, 'Cloisonné Form and decoration from the Yuan through the Qing Dynasty', Cloisonné. Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, New York, 2011, p. 56.

The decoration, shape and size of this vase derive from the blue-and-white  tianqiuping of Qianlong date, which are modelled on Yongzheng prototypes such as the piece published in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding, Hong Kong, 1993, col. pl. 103. While in the Yongzheng design the clouds are depicted mainly through shaded washes without an outline, in the Qianlong version they are painted in a more stylized fashion as seen on a vase, formerly in the Chang Foundation, Taipei, published in James Spencer, Selected Chinese Ceramics from the Han to Qing Dynasties, Taipei, 1990, pl. 150, with the dragon painted in underglaze-red. Compare a further, slightly smaller, Qianlong vase included in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain and Underglazed Red (III), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 210, together with a tianqiuping of Yongzheng mark and period decorated with a copper-red dragon among cobalt-blue waves, pl. 197.

Cloisonné enamel vases of this shape and decoration continued to be produced throughout the Qing dynasty; for example, see a large cloisonné tianqiuping with the dragon in red enamels and the clouds in blue against a whiteground, attributed to the mid-Qing period, included in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Metal-bodied Enamel Ware, op.cit., pl. 146; and another decorated with nine scaly dragons amongst tumultuous waves on a turquoise-ground illustrated in Zhongguo jin yin boli falangqi quanji, Shijiazhuang, 2002, pl. 278, attributed to the late Qing.

The colour scheme used on the present vase is unusual, especially the clouds which are of a multi palette, reminiscent of the shades used for painting clouds on Yongzheng period doucai wares. See the vase from the collection of J. T. Tai sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 8th April 2010, lot 1862, known as the 'rainbow-coloured clouds vase'. The doucai style was ideally suited for rendering multi-coloured clouds. Rainbow-coloured or five-coloured clouds (wuse yun) in China are considered highly auspicious and of good omen. According to Teresa Tse Bartholomew clouds are used as a pun on the word 'fortune' (yunqi) and are considered benevolent because of their power to supply water; see Bartholomew, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San Francisco, 2006, p. 105. Hence the overall design of the present vase, the dragon which represents the emperor and the auspicious rainbow-coloured clouds, is imbued with Imperial reference.

Sotheby's. Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art. London | 09 Nov 2011