Lot 38. A very rare iron-red painted ‘dragon’ bowl, mark and period of Jiajing. Estimate HKD 400,000 — 600,000 (45,157 - 67,735 EUR). Lot Sold 1,750,000 HKD (98,780 EUR). Photo: Sotheby's.

 with deep rounded sides resting on a tapered foot, boldly painted in a rich dark iron-red tone, the exterior with four five-clawed dragons writhing in various poses amidst scrolling clouds above tumultuous crashing waves, the dragons with sinuous scaly bodies and long legs terminating in sharp claws, divided talismanic roundels inscribed in Daoist magic script, all between double-line borders at the rim and the foot, the interior centred with a medallion enclosing a ferocious five-clawed dragon in profile amongst scrolling clouds, encircled by an undulating foliate-scroll band issuing lingzhi heads at the rim, the base inscribed with a six-character reign mark in underglaze blue - 14.9 cm, 6 in.

Provenance: John Sparks Ltd, London, 1935. 
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. R.H.R. Palmer (no. 360), from 1935 to 1962 (£95). 
Sotheby's London, 27th November 1962, lot 35 (£320). 
Bluett & Sons Ltd, London, 1962 (£320). 
Collection of Stephen K. Garratt, from 1962 to 1967.
Bluett & Sons Ltd, London, 1967.
Collection of Roger Pilkington (1928-69), from 1967 (£540).

Exhibited: Chinese Art: An Exhibition presented by the British Council in collaboration with The Chinese Embassy, The National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1944, cat. no. 579; and Glasgow, 1944, cat. no. 408. 
Polychrome Porcelain of the Ming and Manchu Dynasties, The Oriental Ceramic Society, London, 1950 (manuscript catalogue), cat. no. 38.

Literature: Adrian Joseph, Ming Porcelains: Their Origins and Development, London, 1971, pl. 77.

Note: The present iron-red painted bowl of Jiajing mark and period is extremely intriguing and perhaps unique in its decoration of roundels of illegible script paired with imperial five-clawed dragons, and provides valuable insight into the religious belief and practice of the Jiajing Emperor (r. 1522-66) of the Ming dynasty. Although the writing resembles Chinese characters, it is illegible. The roundels probably represent talismans inscribed with Daoist magic script. In China, the practise of fu ji, ‘bearing the ji’ – ji being an instrument for spirits to write with – goes far back in history and resembles the Western practise of ‘wielding the planchette’. Intended as a means of communicating with other-worldly beings such as gods, immortals or spirits through ‘automatic’ or ‘passive’ writing, the custom of fu ji was cherished by the Jiajing Emperor.

‘Spirit writing’ was undertaken with a participant or group of participants wielding a T-shaped or Y-shaped wooden implement, supposedly allowing the gods or spirits invoked to dictate answers to the diviner’s questions by making traces in sand, ashes or similar substances. In the 19th year of the Jiajing reign (1540), the Jiajing Emperor set up a special terrace in the Forbidden City for consulting the planchette about issues of national importance and immortality-related matters (see Maggie C.K. Wan, ‘Grotto-heaven in West Park: Taoist Motifs on Jiajing Imperial Porcelains’, Enlightening Elegance: Imperial Porcelain of the Mid to Late Ming. The Huaihaitang Collection, Art Museum The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2012, pp. 53-61). According to J.J.M. de Groot, The Religious System of China, Leiden, 1903, vol. VI, book II, p. 1314, quoting the Ming History, the Jiajing Emperor regulated punishments and rewards of his officers in accordance with the oracles thus obtained. Such writing is supposed to be legible or interpretable only by Daoist priests.

Although the Jiajing Emperor is well known for his strong interest in Daoism and immortality, and porcelains from his imperial kilns are often decorated with Daoist motifs such as the Eight Trigrams and the Chinese character shou or ‘longevity’ written in cursive script in the form of an evergreen tree, the present bowl with its talismanic writing appears to be unique. In the Palace Museum, Taipei, is a Jiajing-marked blue-and-white porcelain bowl of similar shape and dragon design, with the talismanic medallions replaced by roundels enclosing the four characters of the wish wanshou qingping or ‘infinite longevity, purity and peace’, written in kaishu (regular script); see Good Fortune, Long Life, Health and Peace: A Special Exhibition of Porcelains with Auspicious Designs, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1995, cat. no. 12. Likewise the writings on the present bowl probably represent good luck charms to accompany the five-clawed dragons that symbolise the Emperor.

The current bowl is also rare in its decoration of five dragons painted in overglaze iron red only, which was more often combined with underglaze blue or overglaze enamels rather than being used on its own. A bowl of different form, with two five-clawed red dragons on the outside and no decoration inside, broken and repaired with metal rivets, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang gu taoci ciliao xuancui [Selection of ancient ceramic material from the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2005, vol. 1, pl. 156, where it is mentioned, p. 182, that this overglaze-red design is very rarely seen in the Jiajing period; another bowl of this design in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, was included in the exhibition Kasei Manreki no akae ten/Imperial Overglaze-Enamelled Wares in the Late Ming Dynasty, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1995, cat. no. 4; and a similar bowl from the Seligman and later the Riesco collection was sold twice in our London rooms, 11th May 1954, lot 48, and 23rd June 1970, lot 48. A further example is illustrated in John Ayers,Chinese Ceramics. The Koger Collection, London, 1985, pl. 79, and Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1686.

Compare also a bowl of Wanli mark and period decorated with red dragons, in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, illustrated in Yeh Pei-lang [Ye Peilan], Beauty of Ceramics, vol. 7: Gems of the Wucai Porcelain, Taipei, 1996, pls. 23 and 52; and a bowl of Jiajing mark and period with a similar design in underglaze blue, also from the Koger collection, illustrated in Ayers, op. cit., pl. 57.

The design of dragons among clouds painted in iron red only appears already on a stem bowl of Xuande mark and period, excavated from the Jingdezhen kiln site and included in the exhibition Jingdezhen chutu Yuan Ming guanyao ciqi/Yuan’s and Ming’s Imperial Porcelain Unearthed from Jingdezhen, Yan-Huang Art Museum, Beijing, 1999, cat. no. 210.

Sotheby's. The Pilkington Collection of Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 06 Apr 2016