Lot 2931. An extremely rare small blue and white 'Dragon' jar, mark and period of Xuande (1426-1435); 8.5 cm., 3 5/16 in. Estimate 5,000,000 — 7,000,000 HKD. Lot sold 5,927,500 HKD (481,571 EUR) (761,032 USD). Courtesy Sotheby's 2008.

of finely potted small squat form, painted in vivid tones of pale cobalt-blue on the exterior with two winged scaly dragons in mutual pursuit, flying through cloud scrolls above stormy crested waves, below a formal foliate band on the shoulder, all between a double band on the short upright neck and a single band at the foot, the base recessed with the six-character mark further recessed in the centre within a double circle.

Provenance: Christie's London, 14/16th December 1983, lot 407.

Note: The present Xuande jar is very rare for its elegant shape and small size.  See two jars of this design but with more rounded body and with a Chenghua reign mark inside the stepped foot: the first from the Sedgwick collection, sold in our London rooms, 2nd July 1968, lot 128, discussed by Margaret Medley, 'Re-Grouping Fifteenth Century Blue and White', T.O.C.S., 1962-3, vol. 34, pl. 11, and now in the Rockefeller collection, illustrated in Handbook of the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection, New York, 1981, p. 77 top right; the second jar from the collection of Sam Browne, sold in our London rooms, 23rd May 1972, lot 126, included in the Kau Chi Society exhibition Ancient Chinese Ceramics, Hong Kong, 1981, cat.no. 70, and offered in this sale, lot 2932. 

Compare also a slightly earlier Yongle jar of similar size and painting but with a depressed globular shape, from the T.Y. Chao collection and included in the Hong Kong O.C.S. exhibition Chinese Blue and White Porcelain, City Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong, 1975, cat.no. 16, and in the exhibition Ming and Ch'ing Porcelain from the Collection of the T.Y. Chao Family Foundation, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1978, cat.no. 13, sold in these rooms, 19th May 1987, lot 227.