Lot 130. A rare iron-red and green enameled 'dragon' jar, Mark and period of Jiajing (1522-1566). Height 13 cm. Estimate 150,000 - 250,000 USD. Lot Sold 240,000 USD. © Sotheby's.

the base with a six-character mark within a double square

Provenance: C.T. Loo, Paris.
Collection of Dr Carl Kempe (1884-1967).
Sotheby's Paris, 12th June 2008, lot 12.
Eskenazi Ltd, London.
The Meiyintang Collection.
Sotheby's Hong Kong, 8th April 2013, lot 32.

Literature: Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, pl. 839.
Chinese Ceramic Treasures. A Selection from Ulricehamn East Asian Museum, including The Carl Kempe Collection, Ulricehamn, 2002, no. 1020.
Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol. 4, no. 1687.

Note: Another Jiajing jar of this design and size from the Malcolm MacDonald Collection is in the Oriental Museum, University of Durham, illustrated in Ireneus Laszlo Legeza, A Descriptive and Illustrated Catalogue of the Malcolm MacDonald Collection of Chinese Ceramics in the Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental Studies, University of Durham, London, 1972, pl. CXIV, no. 305; a covered example from the Franks Collection in the British Museum, London, is published in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, no. 9: 103, together with a copy from the Republican era, no. 9: 104; another covered jar of this design in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji [Complete series on Chinese ceramics], Shanghai, 1999-2000, vol. 13, pl. 107; and a jar from the Chang Foundation, Taipei, is illustrated in Yeh Pei-lang [Ye Peilan], Beauty of Ceramics, vol. 7: Gems of the Wucai Porcelain, Taipei, 1996, pl. 44. A jar and cover of this pattern from the collection of W. W. Winkworth was sold in our London rooms, 25th April 1944, lot 383; another without cover, 18th June 1985, lot 143 and again, 7th June 1988, lot 244.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, New York, 18 September 2024