Lot 42. A rare iron-red and yellow 'Dragon' jar, Jiajing mark and period (1522-1566); H. 14 cm. Estimate 20,000-30,000 EUR. © Nagel

the compressed baluster body rising from a recessed base to a short straight neck, boldly painted around the body and shoulders with two sinuous scaly yellow dragons striding amidst leafy scrolling ruyi, all between rocks and waves at the base and ruyi clouds at the shoulder and reserved on a rich dark iron-red ground, the base with a six-character mark in underglaze blue, carved wood stand, Japanese wood box.

Provenance: A Japanese Private Collection, sold Sotheby's London, 14.5.2014, lot 287 and bought by the family of the present owner,

Exhibited: Chugoku toji meihou ten, Gotoh Museum, Tokyo, 1955 

Note: Jars of this type are known in important museum and private collections; compare a jar in the Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Tokyo, included in the exhibition, In Pursuit of the Dragon, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 1988, cat. no. 44; another example is illustrated in Iron in the Fire, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1988, cat. no. 6; yet another jar, formerly in the Avery Brundage Collection and now in the in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, is published in He Li, Chinese Ceramics. The New Standard Guide, London, 1996, pl. 483; and a fourth example from the Meiyintang collection, is illustrated in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol. 2, London, 1994, pl. 706.

Nagel. China I - Fine Asian Art - Salzburg, 05.12.2019