Lot 836. A rare green and yellow-glazed 'Dragon' jar, Wanli six-character mark in underglaze blue within a double circle and of the period (1573-1619). Estimate USD 50,000 - USD 70,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.
The ovoid jar is decorated with four shaped panels of five-clawed dragons leaping amidst flames and chasing a flaming pearl above rocks and waves, each separated by the bajixiang (Eight Buddhist Emblems), all beneath a lappet border on the shoulder.
6 ¾ in. (17.1 cm.) high
Provenance: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accessioned in 1923 (Rogers Fund).
Literature: S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989 ed., p. 190, no. 186.
Notes: Compare the present jar with a number of related yellow-and green-glazed Wanli-marked jars decorated with dragons enclosed within barbed cartouches, including one from the Yokogawa collection illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, The World's Greatest Collections, Vol. 1, Tokyo National Museum, 1982, no. 124, and another in the Baur collection, Geneva illustrated by J. Ayers, The Baur Collection, Vol. 2, Geneva, 1969, no. A208.
Christie's. Collected in America: Chinese Ceramics from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 15 September 2016, New York, Rockefeller Plaza