A MAGNIFICENT AND FINE BLUE AND WHITE ‘DRAGON’ HU-SHAPED VASE
QIANLONG SIX-CHARACTER ARCHAISTIC SEAL MARK AND OF THE PERIOD (1736-1795)
The globular exterior of the vase is finely painted on one side in vibrant cobalt with a three-clawed dragon flanked by two smaller five-flawed dragons amidst an Indian lotus meander. This pattern is repeated on the reverse side. The sloping neck is applied with a pair of moulded dragon handles. The lower body of the vase is decorated with a pattern of crashing waves above a classic band on the low, elegently splayed foot ring, and a similar band of waves below the mouth rim above a register of lotus lappets. Written on the underside base is an underglaze blue six-character reign mark in archaistic script.
HEIGHT : 14 in. (35.5 cm.) high, box
PRICE : Env. 7.000.000 €
SOURCE : CHRISTIES
PROVENANCE
Francis Capel Harrison (1863-1938)
An English private collection, sold at Sotheby’s London, 9 November 2005, lot 327
EXHIBITED
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, July 1905, no. 110 (on loan)
