Poly Auction. A Romance Among Blooming Roses: The Meiyintang Collection of Three Dynasties Imperial Ceramics, Hong Kong, 2 December 2021
A Large Iron-Red Glazed ‘Dragon’ Bowl, Mark And Period Of Jiajing (1522-1566)
Lot 3579. A Large Iron-Red Glazed ‘Dragon’ Bowl, Mark And Period Of Jiajing (1522-1566); D 31.3cm. H 33.5cm. Sold for HKD 1,440,000/USD 184,615 (Estimate HKD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000/USD 153,846 - 230,769). © Poly Auction Hong Kong Limited
The large bowl is potted with the deep rounded sides rising from a short straight foot to a flaring rim. The exterior is boldly painted in a rich dark iron-red with two large five-clawed scaly dragons in pursuit of a ‘flaming pearl’ amidst ruyi-head cloud and fire scrolls, between two sets of double-lines at the rim and the bottom. One of the claws of each dragon was scratched off. The base is inscribed with an underglaze blue six-character mark within a double-circle.
Provenance: 1. Collection of Nancy and Ira Koger
2. The Meiyintang Collection.
Exhibition: Exalted Beings: Imperial Porcelains with Dragon Decoration from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2020.
Literature: 1. John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, London, 1985, pl.79
2. Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, vol.4(1), pp.162-163, pl.1686
3. Exalted Beings: Imperial Porcelain with Dragon Decorations from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2020, p.73, no.21.
Note: Bowls of this decoration and size are rare; see a closely related example in the Idemitsu Collection is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, pl. 195. For the prototype of this type of bowl see one excavated from the waste heaps of the Ming imperial kilns and attributed to the Chenghua period, included in the EXHIBITION Yuan’s and Ming’s Imperial Porcelains Unearthed from Jingdezhen, Yan-Huang Art Museum, Beijing, 1999, cat. no. 317.