Lot 82

Lot 82
Treasury 6, no. 1271

On the Carpet

Colourless glaze on cobalt and copper on porcelain; with a flat lip and concave, circular foot; painted under the glaze with a continuous design of an imperial five-clawed dragon chasing a flaming pearl on a ground of formalized diaper pattern based on the swastika or wan symbol, the shoulders with formalized clouds; the unglazed foot carved with concentric rings; the lip, inner neck, and interior glazed
Imperial kilns, Jingdezhen, 1800–1850
Height: 9 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.60/2.11 cm
Stopper: bronze, reticulated and chased with a loose, interlinked dragon amidst clouds

Lot 82 Provenance:
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd (1985)

Published:
Treasury 6, no. 1271

Lot 82 Commentary
This is an extremely rare variation on the pillar-rug designs discussed in Moss 2008, where Hugh Moss reconsiders this group of wares after the publication of Treasury 6. The information in that publication supersedes that in Treasury 6.

Not only is this one of the few examples with both underglaze blue and red, it is of the simpler design, with just the dragon and the flaming pearl (no clouds, no other flames surrounding the dragon). The flaming pearl is given a rather elaborate realization, resembling a brocade ball attached to a cord. The bottle also has underglaze-red clouds around the shoulders, an area often left undecorated on this group. The primary impression of textural richness, however, comes from the ground pattern. This is a variation of the wanzi buduantou design, a common filler for Chinese carpets of the period.

What seems apparent from the entire group is that they evolved over a period of time, were made in sets of different sizes and colour combinations, and were extremely popular at court. With its imposing size, rare colour, and design combination, this is one of the most impressive of the group.