Flask with white dragons on blue waves. Porcelain with incised and underglaze cobalt-blue decoration. Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province 江西省, 景德鎮. Ming dynasty, Yongle period, AD 1403–24. On loan from Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. PDF 662. © Trustees of the British Museum

Height: 446 mm. Weight: 7.2 kg. Porcelain flask of flattened globular form, with wide long neck tapering in the middle. There is a three-clawed dragon in reserve against a background of waves in underglaze cobalt blue on the exterior, a wide band of scrolling lotus flowers on the neck, and scrolling lotus leaves below the mouth rim.

Both the Yongle (AD1403—24) and Xuande (AD1426—35) emperors sponsored important maritime trade and diplomatic missions to the Middle East. The form of this flask was not originally Chinese but was inspired by a Middle Eastern shape, possibly an enamelled glass vessel. During both the Yongle and Xuande emperors’ reigns, flasks in this large, heavy, bulbous form with variations to the decoration were made at the imperial kilns at Zhushan珠山 in Jingdezhen. Archaeologists unearthed a flask identical to this one with white dragons with incised details on blue waves, in 1994 at Dongmentou東門頭, Zhushan, Jingdezhen, from the Yongle strata. The imperial household probably used such flasks as wine decanters but also traded them as evidenced by similar flasks in the Topkapi Saray in Turkey and from the Ardabil Shrine in Iran. 

Acquisition notes: R. L. Hobson, 1934 records: Cf. Zimmermann, Meisterwerke der Turkischen Musee zu Konstantinopel, Vol.2, Pl. 38.

Bibliographic reference: Hobsob, Robert L, A Catalogue of Chinese Pottery and Porcelain in the Collection of Sir Percival David Bt., F.S.A., London, The Stourton Press, 1934

Medley, Margaret, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 1976

Pierson, Stacey, Illustrated Catalogue of Underglaze Blue and Copper Red Decorated Porcelains in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, University of London, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, School of Oriental and African Studies, 2004

Scott, Rosemary, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art: A Guide to the Collection, London, SAOS, Univeristy of London, 1989

Krahl, Regina; Harrison-Hall, Jessica, Chinese Ceramics: Highlights of the Sir Percival David Collection, London, BMP, 2009