Lot 1. A fine imperial green-enamelled ' dragon' dish, underglaze blue Zhengde six-character mark and of the period (1506-1521). D. 19,8 cm. Estimate 30 000-50 000 €. Lot sold 40,000 €. © Nagel.

with shallow rounded sides supported on a short slightly tapered foot, the interior decorated with a central medallion enclosing a five-clawed dragon writhing among stylized clouds, the head, scaly body and limbs finely incised, reserved on the biscuit and covered with green enamel, the claws and spikes picked out in green enamel over the glaze, all within a green circle repeated at the rim, the exterior incised with two five-clawed dragons striding above crested waves and rocks, similarly reserved on the biscuit and painted with a green enamel against the white ground, the base with a six-character reign in underglaze blue within a double ring.

Provenance: Collection of Gustav Detring (1842-1913) & Constantin von Hanneken (1854-1925).

Constantin von Hanneken (1854-1925).

Elsa von Hanneken, née Detring (married Constantin in 1895).

Gustav Detring (1842-1913).

Gustav Detring, 1842-1913
Gustav Detring was born to the notary Friedrich Detring (1807-1850) and Ida Berghman (1826-1904) in Jülich, Germany. After going to school in Aachen and working at a silk store in Brussels, he joined the Chinese Maritime Customs Service as a fourth-class clerk and served in various capacitiesin Beijing, Shanghai, Canton, Tianjin, and other cities in China. In 1872, after about seven years, he was appointed as Director of the Chinese Maritime Customs Service and after six more years he made his most important career step, becoming the private and trusted advisor to Viceroy Li Hongzhang (1823-1901). Working together with Li, Detring became essential in negotiations between the Chinese court and the German military as well as arms manufacturers. His diplomatic missions and rising influence at the Chinese court under Empress Dowager Cixi culminated in receiving the rank of Dingdai hauling by Cixi herself. Thus, Detring rose to be the highest-ranking westerner in China. 

Constantin von Hanneken (1854-1925)
Born in Trier as the son of Bernhard Carl August Hermann von Hanneken and Julie Anna Catharina Walpurgis, Constantin von Hanneken spent the first years of his professional career in the Prussian Corps, where he served from 1873 to 1878. Through his father’s connections to Gustav Detring, von Hanneken was able to be appointed as another military advisor to Li Hongzhang. Already shortly after starting his work for Li and the Chinese court, von Hanneken was entrusted with the training of Li Hongzhang’s military units. He was also assigned with building several naval forts, e. g. the famous Port Arthur (Lüshunkou, 1881-1886) near today’s Dalian, later in Weihaiwei on the east coast of the Shandong peninsula. Given his superb execution of all tasks, he quickly enjoyed the esteem and respect of his Chinese collaborators. Though he left China in 1887, Li Hongzhang’s trust in him was not diminished when von Hanneken returned seven years later. After his involvement with Japanese military aggressions at the Yalu river and a subsequent injury, he moved to closer to the Chinese court under Empress Dowager Cixi. However, due to other difficulties there, he left China again in 1895, taking many of his possessions with him back to Germany. After four years, he returned to China, after then mostly working in industrial endeavors rather than military ones. 

Having profited from Detring’s advocacy in the past, von Hanneken’s marriage to Detring’s daughter Elsa in 1895 cemented their close relationship. Both Detring and von Hanneken served as illustrious figures at the Chinese court from the late 19th to the early 20th century, both being active in the same circles of foreign advisors, such as Robert Hart, Charles George Gordon, Prosper Marie Giquel, as well as active art collectors such as Alfred E. Hippisley, Herbert Hoover (the later 31st President of the United States), and Ernst Ohlmer, who was also von Hanneken’s brother-in-law. 

In 1919, the von Hanneken family left China one last time, settling back in Germany and taking most of their possessions with them. Part of the family emigrated to the United States in the 1920s and 1930s, taking some of part of the collection with them, but another part stayed in Germany, divided among Detring’s and von Hanneken’s descendants. 

For more details of both Gustav Detring’s and Constantin von Hanneken’s lives, the following resources providean excellent source:
Falkenberg, Rainer [ed.]: Constantin von Hanneken, Briefe aus China 1879-1886, Böhlau Verlag, Köln, Weimar, Wien, 1998.
Wang, Yi: Constantin von Hanneken in China 1879-1925, Röhrig Universitätsverlag, St. Ingbert, 2015.
Tian, Yutang and Liu Jiantang [ed.]: Lishunde da fandian yu jindai Tianjin – History of the Astor Hotel, traced back to 1863, Bai hua wen yi chubanshe, Tianjin, 1991.

Note: This design of green dragons is based on rare Chenghua (AD 1465-87) prototypes. A dish with green dragons on the exterior only, enamelled over the glaze over cobalt-blue outlines, was included in the exhibition Chenghua ciqi tezhan/Special Exhibition of Ch'eng-hua Porcelain Ware, 1465-1487, National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2003, cat. no. 109, together with two similar bowls, cat. nos. 107-8, and two bowls with green dragons enamelled over biscuit silhouettes, cat. nos. 110-11. Three similar dishes are in the British Museum, London, see Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pls. 8: 33-35.

One in the Shanghai Museum is illustrated in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan cangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections : A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 1-44; one from collections of R.H.R. Palmer and Edward T. Chow, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Polychrome Porcelain of the Ming and Manchu Dynasties, London, 1950, cat. no. 77 - This plate was given to the Roemer Museum Hildesheim to be stored and exhibited in 1899.

Nagel. Asiatische Kunst - Salzburg, 06.12.2018