Lot 3660. A massive blue and white 'dragon' jar and cover, Mark and period of Jiajing (1522-1566); with cover h. 65 cm; jar h. 53.6 cm; d. 51 cm; Japanese wood box. Lot Sold 5,080,000 HKD (Estimate 5,000,000 - 8,000,000 HKD) © Sotheby's 2025

Provenance: The Toguri Collection.
Sotheby's London, 9th June 2004, lot 29.


Literature: Nakazawa Fujio, 'Chinese Ceramics in the Toguri Museum of Art', Orientations , April 1988, p.49, fig.11.
Zaidan Hôjin Toguri Bijutsukan zôhin senshû: Seireki 2000 nen kinen zuroku (Selected Works from the Toguri Art Museum Foundation: Commemorative catalog of the year 2000 AD ), Tokyo, 2000, pl.27.


Exhibited: Kaikan kinen meihin ten/Commemorative Exhibition for the Opening , Toguri Museum of Art, Tokyo, 1987, cat.no.20 (illustrated).

Note: Towering at over two feet, awash with regal scenes of bright blue tone, the present jar is a rare and extraordinary treasure of the Jiajing reign. Over his tumultuous forty-six year reign, Emperor Shizong faced invasion from the north, political turmoil and several attempts on his life. In response to these external threats, he soon chose to live beyond the chaos of the Forbidden City, embracing Daoism and embarking on a search for immortality that would inadvertently change the course of Chinese art history in its wake. To furnish Beijing's new palace gardens and Daoist temples, the Jiajing court ordered huge quantities of ceramics; so much so that works had to also be commissioned from neighboring unofficial kilns in Jingdezhen stimulating a new wave of vibrant and creative porcelain production, totally unmatched in the preceding Hongzhi and Zhengde reigns. 

Even the grand auspicious design of this jar pays homage to the Jiajing Emperor. Featuring two ferocious five-clawed dragons (symbols of the emperor) which seem to bulge out into the foreground, and peach trees shaped into the character for longevity ( shou ), the jar is an apt representation of the Emperor himself: regal, royal and majestic; in search of an everlasting legacy. 

Jiajing jars of such extraordinary size and design still retaining their cover are rare and very rarely come to market. Compare similar covered jars preserved in the world's most important collections, including: a slightly smaller (54.2 cm) example the Palace Museum, Beijing, in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red , vol. II, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 96; another jar and cover of this type, excavated in the outskirts of Beijing, now preserved in the Capital Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Zhongguo taoci quanji , vol. 12, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 163; a third example in the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco (accession no. B60P99+.a-.b), illustrated in René-Yvon Lefebvre d'Argencé, Chinese Ceramics in the Avery Brundage Collection , Berkeley, 1967, pl. LIV; a fourth in the Fondation Baur, Geneva, illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection , Gevena, 1999, vol. I, pl. 73; a fifth in Sekai tōji zenshu / Ceramic Art of the World , vol. 14, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 212; and a sixth, illustrated in Min Shin no bijutsu [Arts of the Ming and Qing], Tokyo, 1982, pl. 92. Also compare a similar Jiajing dragon jar and cover from the Sixuezhai Collection, sold in these rooms, 7th October 2006, lot 919; a jar included in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection , Tokyo, 1987, pl. 707; and another in the Musée Guimet, Paris, published in The World's Great Collections. Oriental Ceramics , vol. 7, Tokyo, 1981, col. pl. 81.

Sotheby's. Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 7 May 2025