Lot 32. A Red and Green Enamelled Dragon Jar, Mark and period of Jiajing (1522-1566); 13 cm., 5 1/8  in. Estimate 900,000 - 1,200,000 HKD (88,861 — 118,482 EUR). Lot sold 2,200,000 HKD (217,216 EUR). Courtesy Sotheby's

of square baluster form rising from a slightly tapered foot to a short square neck, each side brightly painted in iron-red and green enamels with a dragon writhing among clouds above wave crests, two ascending and two descending, their scaly bodies detailed in a dark red over a paler red, above alternating red and green petal lappets enclosing pendent floral motifs at the foot, and below borders of stylised clouds and pointed petals around the shoulder and neck, the chamfered footring left unglazed, the recessed base inscribed in underglaze blue with a six-character reign mark within a double square, fitted wooden stand and cover carved in openwork with flower scrolls

PROVENANCE: C.T. Loo & Co., Paris.
Collection of Dr. Carl Kempe (1884-1967), no. CK839.
Sotheby’s Paris, 12th June 2008, lot 12.
Eskenazi Ltd., London.

LITTERATURE: Bo Gyllensvärd, Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, pl. 839.
Kinesiska Keramiska Mästerwerk. I Urval från Ulricehamns Östasiatiska Museum, Inkluderande Dr. Carl Kempes Samling/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 Gulbenkian Museum of Oriental Art and Archaeology, University of Durham, see 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. The Meiyintang Collection, Part V - An Important Selection of Imperial Chinese Porcelains. Hong Kong | 08 avr. 2013