Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, New York, 12 sept. 2018, 10:30 AM
An extremely rare molded copper-red-decorated 'dragon' amphora vase, Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722)
Lot 102. An extremely rare molded copper-red-decorated 'dragon' amphora vase, Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722). Height 8 1/8 in., 20.6 cm. Estimate 8,000 — 12,000 USD. Lot sold 47,500 USD. © Sotheby's.
the sides flaring from a narrow foot and rising to a slender, waisted neck with three raised fillets encircling the lower neck and silver-mounted everted rim, the lower body molded in low relief and incised with turbulent waves strewn with ribbon-like currents and plumes of sea spray, two sinuous dragons painted in liver-toned copper red rising formidably from the sea, their three-clawed paws outstretched and jaws open wide, the recessed base with a six-character mark in underglaze blue.
Provenance: Collection of Stephen Junkunc, III (d. 1978).
Note: The present vase belongs to a small group of Kangxi-marked amphorae molded with dragons leaping from crashing waves. However, even within this rare type, this vase stands out as perhaps the only example in which the dragons are painted in underglaze-red against a molded white ground. By contrast, on other amphora vases of this type, both the dragons and the sea are molded, and the vase is covered entirely in celadon glaze. Celadon-glazed versions include an example in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in Zhongguo meishu quanji: Gongyi meishu bian, taoci[Complete Collection of Chinese Art: Decorative Arts, Ceramics], vol. 3, Shanghai, pl. 157; one from the Jingguantang Collection, formerly in the collection of the Tsui Museum of Art, published in The Tsui Museum of Art: Chinese Ceramics IV, Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, 1995, pl. 3, and sold at Christie's