Lot 8101. A very rare blue and white ‘Dragon and Phoenix’ shallow bowl, Jiajing six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1522-1566); 5 7/16 in. (13.8 cm.) diam. Estimate HKD 500,000 - HKD 800,000. Price realised HKD 2,375,000 © Christie's Images Ltd 2017

The bowl is delicately potted with shallow rounded sides resting on a slightly recessed base. The interior is exquisitely painted with a roundel of a striding five-clawed dragon and phoenix in flight amid leafy lotus and floral scrolls, the exterior is painted in a similar fashion within double-line borders beneath the rounded rim and above the unglazed foot.

Provenance: Joe Yuey, San Francisco 
Bluett, London
Sold at Christie’s New York, 17 September 2010, lot 1368

Note: The current bowl belongs to a group of porcelain made by the imperial kilns during the early Jiajing period that was closely modelled after Chenghua ceramics. The imitation reflected a delicate time in history when the Jiajing Emperor and his court were engaged in a political conflict known as the Great Rites Controversy. The Jiajing Emperor had succeeded his first cousin the Zhengde Emperor after the latter bore no children and his father the Hongzhi Emperor did not leave any surviving children either. According to tradition, the Jiajing Emperor was advised to be posthumously adopted by his late uncle who had been dead for more than two decades, but instead he insisted that his own biological father, the fourth son of the Chenghua Emperor and the younger brother of the Hongzhi Emperor be posthumously declared emperor, thus claiming his legitimacy through his biological father instead of his paternal uncle.

The Emperor’s personal preference may have extended to the production at the imperial kilns, giving rise to porcelains such as the current bowl that closely emulated those of the Chenghua reign, not only for their remarkable quality, but also to assert the Emperor’s legitimacy by making a direct connection with the Chenghua Emperor.

Shallow bowls such as the present type were used as altar vessels for Buddhist rituals during the Chenghua period. All the surviving examples from the Chenghua period are painted with floral motifs and appear in three sizes, the smallest measure approx. 10.2 cm. and are painted with pomegranate scroll, the second smallest measure approx. 12 cm. with lotus scroll, and the largest measure approx. 13.7 cm. with floral medallions, see Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (II), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Hong Kong, 2000, pp. 27-29, nos. 25-27 (fig. 1). 

Blue and white 'Floral medallions' shallow bowl, Chenghua period (1465-1487), Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing. 

The Jiajing examples remain true to their Chenghua prototype in terms of potting, glaze, and the painting style, see for example, a Jiajing-marked shallow bowl painted with floral medallions in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in ibid., p. 157, no. 146 (fig. 2), which is hardly distinguishable from its prototype. The Jiajing repertoire expands beyond floral motifs, and in addition to dragon and phoenix seen on the current bowl, there are motifs such as children at play, dragons pursuing flaming pearls, and phoenix among others. For a description of the different motifs on Jiajing shallow bowls housed in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, see Gugong ciqilu, vol. 2, Ming (2-2), Taipei, 1961, pp. 139-142. It is worthy of note from the 1925 inventory number noted in the catalogue that the ‘dragon and phoenix’ bowls were housed in the Jingyang Palace in the Forbidden City, where a number of Chenghua porcelain including the palace bowls, ‘boys’ bowls were also kept.

Blue and white 'Floral medallions ' shallow bowl, Jiajing mark and period (1522-1566), Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing.