Lot 3579. A Large Iron-Red Glazed ‘Dragon’ Bowl, Mark and Period of Jiajing (1522-1566). D 31.3cm. Sold for HKD 1,440,000 (Estimate HKD 1,200,000 - 1,800,000). © Poly Auction Hong Kong Limited 2022

The bowl is of lavish mouth and curved belly, with a footrim, and is of handsome and dignified form, with a solid body and a lustrous glaze. The exterior is painted in iron-red with a dragon fighting for a pearl, the colour pure, the dragon in a powerful, sweeping pose, the physique unrestrained and athletic, the brushwork exquisite in its boldness, and the imposing manner. The foot inscribed in blue and white seal script, 'Made in the Jiajing year of the Ming dynasty'.

Provenance: 1. Nancy Koger and Ira Koger Collection
2. Meiyintang Collection, Switzerland.

Exhibition: The Dragon Soars to the Nine Heavens - An Exhibition of Imperial Porcelain with Dragon Motifs from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2020.

Published: 1. John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, London, 1985, plate 79
2. Kang Ruijun, The Meiyintang  Collection of Chinese Ceramics, Volume IV (I), London, 1994-2010, pp. 162-163, no. 1686
3. The Dragon Soars to the Nine Heavens - An Exhibition of Imperial Porcelain with Dragon Motifs from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Poly Art Museum, Beijing, 2020, p. 73, no. 021

Note: The reason is that red had a very special connotation in the Ming Dynasty. In addition to the difficulty of the firing process, according to the "Telegraph of Things", "the fresh red clay for firing copper-red glaze was exhausted at this time, and only iron-red could be fired", so the red glaze was not restored in the Ming generation.

However, it was an essential part of the imperial ceremonies and had to be replaced by the less difficult iron-red. The present example, with its rich, deep, almost crimson colour, is a representative of Jiajing iron-red porcelain. For a similar example, see the old collection of the National Palace Museum, a red-coloured dragon bowl on a white ground, the exterior painted with two five-clawed dragons, the interior plain, restored after breakage with a concrete nail, Collection of Ancient Ceramics in the National Palace Museum. Volume 1, 2005, plate 156, in which it is stated that this type of red-painted decoration on glaze is rare in the Jiajing reign, p. 182; another example survives in the Iemitsu Museum, Tokyo, in Jiajing and Wanli no terracotta, Toyo Pottery Museum, 1994, no. 4; this bowl was also fired in the Wanli reign and is now in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, in The bowl is also in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, and is illustrated in The Beautiful Ceramics: Famous Porcelains, 2005, plates 23 and 52.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version).

Poly Auction Hong Kong Limited. A Romance Among Blooming Roses: The Meiyintang Collection of Three Dynasties Imperial Ceramics, Hong Kong, 2 Dec 2021