Lot 168. A rare pair of blue and white ‘dragon’ jars and covers, Qing dynasty, 18th century; 8 ¼ in. (20.8 cm.) overall height. Estimate HKD 600,000 - HKD 800,000 (USD 76,929 - USD 102,573). Price realised HKD 1,625,000. © Christie's Image Ltd 2019

Each jar is finely decorated with a pair of dragons amidst clouds, below a band of ruyi-heads around the shoulder and lappets around the foot. The base is inscribed with an apocryphal Jiajing six-character mark. The covers are similarly decorated, box.

Note: The form and decoration of this lot is inspired by Jiajing blue and white jars, an example of which is in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, with a Jiajing mark and bearing an almost identical pattern. See Gugong cangci-Ming qinghuaci (Porcelain of the National Palace Museum: Blue-and-White Wares of the Ming Dynasty), Hong Kong, 1963, pp. 48-49, no. 14 (fig. 1).

fig. 1. A blue and white 'dragon' jar and cover, Jiajing mark and period (1522-1566), Collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei.

Imperial porcelains produced in the Qianlong reign but with a Jiajing six-character mark are significantly rare. Evidence for this is found in the Comprehensive Records of Zaobanchu Workshops, which states that on the nineteenth day of the second month of the thirty-third year of the Qianlong reign (1768), the Qianlong Emperor commissioned the Imperial Kilns at Jingdezhen to fire three blue and white washers in the style of Jiajing and marked Jiajing, and which were later delivered by Ilingga, Supervisor of the Imperial Kilns, on the eighteenth day of the eleventh month. 

A related Qianlong mark-and-period red and yellow-enameled dragon covered jar, also in the style of Jiajing, is illustrated in Lu Chenglong and Jiang Jianxin eds., Mingdai Jiajing Longqing Wanli yuyao ciqi-Jingdezhen yuyao yizhi chutu yu Gugong bowuyuan chuanshi ciqi duibi, vol. 1, Beijing, 2018, pp. 388-389, pl. 234.

Christie's. The Pavilion Sale - Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art Including the Quek Kiok Lee Collection, Hong Kong, 9 October 2019