A magnificent, fine and rare iron-red and underglaze-blue ‘nine dragon’ charger, Qianlong seal mark and period. Photo courtesy Uppsala Auktion

With curved sides and wide everted rim, the interior painted with a central medallion of an iron-red five-clawed frontal-facing dragon curled around a flaming pearl amidst a turbulent sea of underglaze-blue waves, the cavetto on both the interior and exterior with four rampant red dragons in different lively attitudes, two of them five-clawed and two three-clawed and one of the latter with wings and a fish tail and only one eye visible, all pacing among blue clouds, the rim encircled by a band of crashing waves, inscribed to the base with a Qianlong sealmark in underglaze blue and of the period. Period: Qianlong mark and period. Diameter: 47.5cm, 18 ¾ in. Perfect apart from rubbing to central dragon and slight rubbing to one claw. Estimate 800.000 - 1.000.000 kr (€ 88.000 - 111.000). Price Realised 8.200.000 kr

Provenance: Rolf Nobel (1882-1947), who most likely received it from his elder brother Emanuel Nobel (1859-1932). Rolf and Emanuel were both nephews of Alfred Nobel, founder of the Nobel Prize Award. Thence by descent to Rolf Nobels son Viktor Nobel (1919-2014), thence to the present owner.

Emanuel Nobel lead the Nobel companies in Russia and was the President of BraNobel in Russia after his father Ludvig died. He was one of Carl Fabergés most important clients besides the Russian Tsar and family.

The dragon design on this charger follows after a Xuande prototype, where dishes were painted with a side-facing five-clawed dragon amongst crashing waves in the centre, the cavetto decorated with three dragons striding amid clouds. An example of the Xuande dish, excavated at the waste heap of the Ming Imperial Kilns in Zhushan, was included in the exhibition, Xuande Imperial Kiln Excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1998, cat. no. 87.

Another Xuande example with four dragons around the cavetto is illustrated in, The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 34 Blue and White (1) Porcelain With Underglaze Red.

On the present dish the central side-facing dragon of the Xuande prototype has been replaced with a dragon en face. The vivacity of the central dragon depicted here is characteristic of the Qing dynasty portrayal of the Imperial dragon, which compared to the Ming dragon, is ever more boldly detailed and defined in its facial features and more elaborately represented in its general ferocity and mythological power.

The use of red heightens the contrast between the crashing waves of the background and that of the dragons while heightening the scene with further auspicious meaning. The Qing craftsmen have added the crested rolling wave band encircling the rim of the dish which completes the design, an element that was not necessary for the smaller Ming dishes.

Early Qing rulers, particularly Qianlong, were enamoured with the arts and liked to see their old masterpieces of ancient designs and glazes re-interpreted using the skills and technology available during their reigns as a way of celebrating China’s glorious past.

Dishes of this type were favoured both by the Qianlong emperor and his predecessor the emperor Yongzheng who first commissioned the making of these particular magnificent and impressive “red dragon” chargers. A powerful re-interpretation indeed.
These dishes would have been used at Imperial banquets undoubtedly to impress and add a feeling of grandeur to the occasion.

A Qianlong example of the red dragon dish can be seen in the Nanjing Museum and was included in the exhibition, Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1995, cat. no. 81. This red dragon dish was also illustrated on the front cover of the catalogue.

Another Qianlong dish of this magnificent and formidable size was exhibited in Sweden in 1995 in Gothenburg at Röhsska Museet on loan from the Shanghai museum and can be seen in the exhibition catalogue, ”Ancient Chinese Art from the Shanghai Museum”, no. 61, page 63.

For a very similar Qianlong example of this dish see Sotheby’s, May 15th 1990, lot 207. This dish is further illustrated in the catalogue Sotheby’s Hong Kong, Twenty Years, 1973 to 1993, celebrating the highlights of objects sold through them.

Further examples, one from the Qianlong period and one from the Yongzheng period are illustrated in Min Shin no bijutsu [Ming and Qing art], Tokyo, 1982, pls. 154 and 172.

Another dish from the Yongzheng period is in The Palace Museum, Beijing and is published in The Complete Collection of Treasues of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain and under glazed Red, vol. 3, Hong Kong, 2000, pl. 223; another in the Meiyintang collection published in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection, London, 1994-2010, vol.4, no.1723. In this book work Krahl writes about the technical achievement that allowed for such grand objects to be made during this period.

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