Lot 1. A rare red and yellow enamel 'dragon' jar, Ming dynasty, Jiajing six-character mark in underglaze blue and of the period (1522-1566). Hauteur : 14 cm. Vendu : 20,160 € (Estimation : 20,000 – EUR 30,000 €). © Christie's Images Ltd 2023

Provenance: Important European private collection.
European private collection, acquired by the grandfather of the current owner at Galerie Wannieck, Paris, February 1931 (according to the collector's notebook).

The grandfather of the present owner collected Chinese porcelain in the 1920s and 1930s on the European market. The first part of the collection, including some pieces from the Eumorfopoulos collection, was sold at Christie's Amsterdam, 31 October 2006, lots 473-486. The second and last part of the collection is now offered in Christie's Paris.

Note: The striking red and yellow combination is a distinctive colour scheme of the Jiajing period but to produce these enamels on porcelain was a technically challenging process. The failure rate was high and these jars are rare survivors. Three firings were required: first at around 1300 °C for clear-glazed porcelain, then at a lower temperature for the yellow overglaze enamel, and finally at a still lower temperature for the black outlines and the iron-red background.
Red and yellow dragon jars appear to have been made in three different versions that vary slightly in size, design and form. This jar belongs to the group of the largest size and comparable examples can be found in museums around the world. Few from private collections ever come to the market. A closely-related jar measuring 21.8 cm high is in the collection of The British Museum, London, donated by Harvey Heddon in 1930, 0719.48, and illustrated by Jessica Harrison-Hall in Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no.9:90; another in the Palace Museum Collection, Beijing, is illustrated in Complete Collections of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Miscellaneous Enamelled Porcelain, Plain Tricoloured Porcelains, Shanghai, pl.50; two further jars were included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Royal Academy, London, 1935-1936, one with a cut-down neck from the collection of Dr E Haltmark, Stockholm, Sweden, no. 1949, and the second from the Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany, no.1952.
A closely related jar, 21 cm high, but with no cover, is illustrated in Mayuyama Seventy Years, Tokyo, Japan, 1976, p. 278, no. 832. The same publication illustrates two further red and yellow enamel dragon jars with more waisted forms representing the two smaller sizes: the first measuring 11 cm high, illustrated p 278, no. 833; and the second jar, from the collection of The Museum Yamato Bunkakan, Japan, measuring 13.5 cm diameter, illustrated on p 278, no. 834, also illustrated in Michel & Cécile Beurdeley, La céramique chinoise, Office du Livre, Fribourg, 1982, cat. no. 108, p. 206.
See a comparable jar from the Eumorphopoulos collection published in R. L. Hobson, The George Eumorfopoulos collection. Catalogue of the Chinese, Corean and Persian pottery and porcelain. Volume Four: The Ming dynasty, Ernest Benn, Ltd. Bouverie House, London, 1925-1928, cat. no. D83, p. 44 and pl. XVII.
A similar jar with its cover from the Ernest Grandidier collection is in the Musée Guimet, Paris, inv. no. G2453, illustrated in Sublimes matières, catalogue d’exposition, Musée Guimet, Paris, 2014, p. 104 and in Oriental ceramics : Tôyô tôji taikan [= The World’s Great Collections],Tôkyô : Kodansha, 1976, Vol. 8, cat 36.

Jarre couverte à décor de dragons et de nuage, Chine, dynastie Ming, Règne de Jiajing (1522-1566), porcelaine, Fours de Jingdezhen. Hauteur : 0.174 m. Diamètre : 0.13 m. Ancienne collection Ernest Grandidier. G2453. Paris, musée Guimet - musée national des Arts asiatiques. Photo (C) RMN-Grand Palais (musée Guimet, Paris) / Richard Lambert

A red and yellow enamel 'dragon' jar, 13.4 cm high, from the Manno Art Museum was sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28 October 2002, lot 540. The present jar is closely related to the example sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 7 October 2015, lot 3659, that measured 20.2cm high but which had no cover, and to another example sold at Christie's Paris, 16 December 2022, lot 132.

Christie's. ART D'ASIE, Paris, 12 december 2023