Lot 3660. A rare green-enamelled and underglaze-blue 'Dragon' stembowl, Mark and period of Jiajing (1522-1566);  diameter 15.5 cm., 6 1/8  in. Estimate 600,000 — 800,000 HKD (68,974 — 91,965 EUR). Lot sold 2,840,000 HKD (326,475 EUR). Photo Sotheby's.

well potted with deep rounded sides rising from a hollow tall splayed foot to a flaring rim, the interior decorated in green enamel with a medallion enclosing a five-clawed dragon amongst small stylised clouds within an underglaze-blue double-circle, the exterior similarly enamelled with four writhing dragons, all in different twisted positions and against a background of delicately incised tempestuous waves extending onto the foot, the rim encircled with a double-lined band enclosing florets, the exterior of the foot inscribed in underglaze blue with a horizontal six-character reign mark.

Note: This ‘green dragon’ stem bowl appears to be unique and it is extremely rare to find stem bowls of any type of Jiajing mark and period (1522-66), as these vessels were largely used in Buddhist ceremonies, which the Jiajing Emperor supported much less than Daoist rituals. Two rare examples of a monochrome blue and a monochrome yellow stem bowl are preserved in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, both with very similar Jiajing reign marks inside the stem and of the period, illustrated in Minji meihin zuroku [Illustrated catalogue of important Ming porcelains], Tokyo, 1977-78, vol. 3, pls. 33 and 37.

Green dragon bowls and dishes were produced since the Chenghua reign (1465-87) and at that time mostly had outlines painted in underglaze blue, filled with green enamel. This doucai-related style did not continue beyond Chenghua. Still during that period a new style had been developed that became extremely popular in the Hongzhi (1488-1505) and Zhengde (1506-21) reigns, with dragons incised in the unfired body, reserved in the biscuit, and then covered with green enamel. This in turn was replaced by the present style, where details of the dragons are painted in black over the green enamel. Only very few examples are known with this type of decoration which appears to have been short-lived, probably starting in the Zhengde period and continuing into the early Jiajing reign. Black line drawings as used here to sketch the dragons are characteristic of the Jiajing reign and can also be seen, for example, on the yellow-and-red jar, lot 3659, but were rarely used in other periods.

No other ‘green dragon’ stem bowl appears to be recorded, but a bowl with very similar decoration, of Zhengde mark and period, with the same highly stylized floral border around the rim, is in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated in Li He, Chinese Ceramics. The New Standard Guide, London, 1996, no. 447; and a similar bowl of Jiajing mark and period in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is published in Minji meihin zuroku, op. cit., pl. 50.

Compare also a small wine ewer and cover and two matching dishes with similar green dragons and blue borders, all without reign marks and probably of similar date as the pieces above, but attributed, respectively, to the 15th century, the Hongzhi and the Chenghua reigns: the ewer included in the exhibition Chenghua ciqi tezhan/Special Exhibition of Ch’eng-hua Porcelain Ware, 1465-1487, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2003, cat. no. 112; one dish illustrated in Zhongguo Guojia Bowuguan guancang wenwu yanjiu congshu/Studies on the Collections of the National Museum of China. Ciqi juan[Porcelain section]: Mingdai [Ming dynasty], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 59; the other from the Collection of Anthony du Boulay, sold at Bonhams London, 10th November 2003, lot 117.

In the Jiajing period green dragons with black details were also used to decorate vases in the form of archaic bronze zun, but with underglaze blue used only for the reign mark; one such vase is published in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, Geneva, 1999, vol. 1, pl. 85, where an identical piece in the Toguri Museum, Tokyo is mentioned; another in Fujioka Ryoichi and Hasebe Gakuji, eds, Sekai tōji zenshū/Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 14: Min/Ming Dynasty, Tokyo, 1976, pl. 193; a third was included in the Exhibition of Chinese Ceramics, organized by the Kau Chi Society of Chinese Art at The Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1981, cat. no. 99; and one from the collection of W.W. Winkworth, was sold in our London rooms, 26th April 1938, lot 116 and again at Christie’s London, 4th June 1973, lot 97. A small bag-shaped jar of Jiajing mark and period with a similar green dragon design, without any use of underglaze blue, with even the reign mark painted in green, is illustrated in John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics. The Koger Collection, London, 1985, pl. 82 and on the cover.

Sotheby's. Important Chinese Art, Hong Kong, 07 oct. 2015, 02:30 PM