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Lot Essay
This magnificent copper-red and underglaze-blue ‘Dragon’ tianqiuping is a true testament to the skills and creativity of the potters during the early Qing Dynasty and very indicative of the innovation and precision particularly associated with the Yongzheng reign (1723-1735).
The vessel is powerfully potted and skillfully decorated with a single sinuous three-clawed dragon meandering through wispy, vibrantly drawn clouds. The dragon is beautifully rendered in a ferocious way and the copper-red is particularly well fired, being a bright tone of red, resembling crush raspberries.
The dragon is perhaps the most important motif in Chinese ceramics decorative repertoire, being symbolic of Imperial power, and its stylistic treatment on the present vase combines the very best characteristics of pre-Ming and Qing renditions.
During the Song Dynasty the dragon motif was established as an archaistic chilong type with three large claws and set in relative isolation giving the sinuous snakelike body maximum impact. This is perfectly exemplified by the powerful paintings of the great 13th-century artist Chen Rong, which have no doubt heavily influenced the artisans who created the current vase. An example of such extraordinary painting, hailing from the Fujita Museum, Japan, was sold at Christie’s New York in March 2017, sale 14319 lot 0507 (fig.1)
During the early Ming period, the dragon remained unobscured by surrounding decoration, whether clouds, flames, or foliage, retaining its whole body as a dominant single visual entity. In the Qing period however, the dragon becomes ever more boldly detailed and defined in its facial features and more elaborate in its general ferocity and fabulous mythological representation. It is depicted in more menacing and vigorous postures, not only turning back but fully frontal and even seen from below.
The present vase is a deliberate derivation of the early-Ming style, but more specifically, it follows the designs on large early Ming tianqiuping and bianhu as it employs a three-clawed dragon, found only on these forms. See the blue and white ‘Dragon’ tianqiuping , bearing a Xuande six-character mark in the Tianjin Municipal Museum and illustrated in Porcelains from the Tianjin Municipal Museum, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 84 (fig 2). Two further examples of such ‘Dragon’ tianqiuping are in public collections and illustrated in J. Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, fig. 47; and Blue and White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II (part I), pl. 3, from the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Further, it echoes the Ming pattern by portraying the dragons unencumbered by their surrounding decorative grounds, which in the present case of wispy clouds is also selected from the early Ming vocabulary and treated as such, albeit more detailed . Similarly, the borders of crashing waves around the base and mouth rim are borrowed from the rims of early Ming dishes.
However, the present design is by no means a lavish imitation; the dominant dragon is thoroughly Qing in type. It strides and impresses like its three-clawed forebearers, but has shed its long forelock and backward glance. Its nose is now shortened and more pointed, its jawline squared, its horns more stag-like and its whiskers longer and as sinuous as its finely-scaled body.
Similarly decorated vessels from the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods can be found in public collections. See an underglaze-blue ‘Dragon’ tianqiuping in the Chang Foundation, Taipei, illustrated by J. Spencer in the Chang Foundation Inaugural Catalogue, Taipei, 1990, p. 54, or the vase with a copper-red dragon sold in Hong Kong, 2 May 1995, lot 118.
Two further tianqiuping decorated in underglaze-blue and copper-red dragons are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p230-231, pl. 210 & 211.
Compare also a very similar tianqiuping illustrated in A Dealer’s Hand. The Chinese Art World Through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi, London, 2012, pl. 158, which has been sold three times at Sotheby’s Hong Kong: 2nd May 1995, lot 118, 7th May 2002, lot 580 and 31st October 2004, lot 25.
The most recent virtually identical tianqiuping sold at Poly Beijing, 5 June 2019, for a record-breaking hammer price of RMB 147,200,000.
The vessel is powerfully potted and skillfully decorated with a single sinuous three-clawed dragon meandering through wispy, vibrantly drawn clouds. The dragon is beautifully rendered in a ferocious way and the copper-red is particularly well fired, being a bright tone of red, resembling crush raspberries.
The dragon is perhaps the most important motif in Chinese ceramics decorative repertoire, being symbolic of Imperial power, and its stylistic treatment on the present vase combines the very best characteristics of pre-Ming and Qing renditions.
During the Song Dynasty the dragon motif was established as an archaistic chilong type with three large claws and set in relative isolation giving the sinuous snakelike body maximum impact. This is perfectly exemplified by the powerful paintings of the great 13th-century artist Chen Rong, which have no doubt heavily influenced the artisans who created the current vase. An example of such extraordinary painting, hailing from the Fujita Museum, Japan, was sold at Christie’s New York in March 2017, sale 14319 lot 0507 (fig.1)
During the early Ming period, the dragon remained unobscured by surrounding decoration, whether clouds, flames, or foliage, retaining its whole body as a dominant single visual entity. In the Qing period however, the dragon becomes ever more boldly detailed and defined in its facial features and more elaborate in its general ferocity and fabulous mythological representation. It is depicted in more menacing and vigorous postures, not only turning back but fully frontal and even seen from below.
The present vase is a deliberate derivation of the early-Ming style, but more specifically, it follows the designs on large early Ming tianqiuping and bianhu as it employs a three-clawed dragon, found only on these forms. See the blue and white ‘Dragon’ tianqiuping , bearing a Xuande six-character mark in the Tianjin Municipal Museum and illustrated in Porcelains from the Tianjin Municipal Museum, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 84 (fig 2). Two further examples of such ‘Dragon’ tianqiuping are in public collections and illustrated in J. Ayers, Far Eastern Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1980, fig. 47; and Blue and White Ware of the Ming Dynasty, Book II (part I), pl. 3, from the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Further, it echoes the Ming pattern by portraying the dragons unencumbered by their surrounding decorative grounds, which in the present case of wispy clouds is also selected from the early Ming vocabulary and treated as such, albeit more detailed . Similarly, the borders of crashing waves around the base and mouth rim are borrowed from the rims of early Ming dishes.
However, the present design is by no means a lavish imitation; the dominant dragon is thoroughly Qing in type. It strides and impresses like its three-clawed forebearers, but has shed its long forelock and backward glance. Its nose is now shortened and more pointed, its jawline squared, its horns more stag-like and its whiskers longer and as sinuous as its finely-scaled body.
Similarly decorated vessels from the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods can be found in public collections. See an underglaze-blue ‘Dragon’ tianqiuping in the Chang Foundation, Taipei, illustrated by J. Spencer in the Chang Foundation Inaugural Catalogue, Taipei, 1990, p. 54, or the vase with a copper-red dragon sold in Hong Kong, 2 May 1995, lot 118.
Two further tianqiuping decorated in underglaze-blue and copper-red dragons are in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p230-231, pl. 210 & 211.
Compare also a very similar tianqiuping illustrated in A Dealer’s Hand. The Chinese Art World Through the Eyes of Giuseppe Eskenazi, London, 2012, pl. 158, which has been sold three times at Sotheby’s Hong Kong: 2nd May 1995, lot 118, 7th May 2002, lot 580 and 31st October 2004, lot 25.
The most recent virtually identical tianqiuping sold at Poly Beijing, 5 June 2019, for a record-breaking hammer price of RMB 147,200,000.