A RARE ANHUA UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND IRON-RED DECORATED PORCELAIN DRAGON DISH

Estimated Value:

3.000 € - 5.000 €

Result:

46.620 € incl. Premium and VAT

Description:

China, Chenghua six-character mark, late Kangxi/ early Yongzheng period, ca. 1710 - 30
D. 20,2 cm
The shallow rounded sides rising from a slightly tapered foot to a gently flared rim, brightly decorated in underglaze blue against a contrasting iron-red ground, the interior with a central medallion enclosing a five-clawed dragon writhing above a tempestuous sea, its powerful scaly body issuing flames, the foaming crests reserved in white and shaded in red, all within blue double lines repeated at the rim, the inner walls left white with four kui-dragons in ‚anhua’, the outside decorated with nine similar blue dragons striding above red crested waves, the base inscribed with a six-character Chenghua mark within a double ring in underglaze blue.
Trübsbach Collection Dresden. (Dr. phil., Dr. rer. nat. Paul Trübsbach, 1872 - 1948), according to his family collected in Asia prior 1914. Sold by a family member from his estate at Nagel, 14.11.1999, lot 2365 and bought by the present owner, inventory no. 100
Published: Suebsman/ Antonin ‚Porcelain Treasures of the Kangxi Period‘, Hetjens-Museum Duesseldorf 2015, p. 106, no. 13
Exhibited: ‚The Dancing Dragon/ China Contemporary‘ Hetjens Museum, Duesseldorf, 19.7.2015 - 17.1.2016, no. 13
The dragon design is rarely seen in this colour scheme and is much more common in reverse, with a red dragon among blue waves. The combination seen on this dish was, however, already in use in the early Ming period; compare an apparently unmarked dish from the Qing court collection and still preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, attributed to the Xuande reign (AD 1426-35), with an additional key-fret border at the rim on the exterior, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, vol. 1, Shanghai, 2000, pl. 228. Another unmarked dish of this design attributed to the late 15th century was in the British Rail Pension Fund collection, sold at Sotheby‘s Hongkong, 16.5.1989, lot 25, and illustrated in Sotheby’s Hong Kong -Twenty Years, 1973-1993, Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 155. Compare a very similar dish of this design, also with a spurious Chenghua mark and with nine blue dragons among red waves on the reverse, from the Gulexuan collection, illustrated in Regina Krahl with Clarissa von Spee, Chinese Ceramics from the Gulexuan Collection, Lünen, 2003, cat. no. 112. A Kangxi version of this pattern is in the Art Institute of Chicago, included in the exhibition Masterpieces of Chinese Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, 1989, cat. no.
92; another was included in the exhibition Chinese Porcelain. The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1987, cat. no. 94 - Very small restored glaze chip or frit to rim

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