Lot 79

Lot 79
Treasury 6, no. 1192

Nine Dragons

Slightly crackled colourless glaze on beige porcelain; with a flat lip and recessed flat foot surrounded by a protruding convex footrim; moulded with a continuous design of nine four-clawed dragons emerging from formalized turbulent waves; all exterior surfaces glazed; the interior unglazed
Probably imperial, Jingdezhen, 1780–1810
Height: 6 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.67/1.77 cm
Stopper: coral, carved with a coiled chi dragon

Lot 79 Provenance:
Lilla S. Perry
Ann Meselson
Eric Young
Sotheby’s, London, 3 March 1987, lot 60

Published:
Perry 1960,p. 84, no. 65
Kleiner 1987,no. 224
1987 exhibition poster
Galeries Lafayette, 1990,p. 8
Treasury 6, no. 1192

Exhibited:
Sydney L. Moss Ltd., London, October 1987
Galeries Lafayette, Paris, April 1990
Creditanstalt, Vienna, May–June 1993

Lot 79 Commentary
This exquisite moulded-porcelain bottle may date from the last years of the Qianlong emperor’s life. It represents an early type of moulded porcelain characterized by relatively small size and extraordinary quality of workmanship. Some are decorated with dragons, some with the Eighteen Luohan, and others with Buddhist lions; most are of this creamy beige colour with some crackling in the glaze. One spectacular example featuring dragons picked out in iron-red enamel is known (Hugh Moss records). Two others, but from different moulds, are in Hall 1987,no. 65, and Au Hang 1993, no. 297. This one, with its noble dragons and equally noble pedigree, represents the group at its finest.

Because its dragons are of the four-clawed variety, there can be little doubt that this particular bottle was not made for use by the emperor or his immediate family; this need not preclude imperial production, however. A good many four-clawed dragons appear on reign-marked porcelains made at the imperial kilns (see, for instance, lot 4 in the present sale) and were produced to be distributed as gifts from the emperor to the ennobled. A constant stream of orders is recorded for the kilns at Jingdezhen to supply all ranks of the imperial family with porcelain tableware, so it is likely that the same situation would apply to snuff bottles. We take it as a likely indication of imperial manufacture when bottles are of a known courtly type and quality and were obviously made in reasonably large series. Many of the unmarked moulded porcelain bottles of the mid-Qing were probably imperial. Strangely, only a few moulded porcelain bottles survive in the imperial collection, and yet we cannot be in any doubt that they were made in large numbers for the court during the mid-Qing period. It is likely that, being suited to mass production in series, most such bottles were distributed as gifts. The majority of porcelain bottles with four-clawed dragons, with or without reign marks, appear to have been made in sets or series, and would thus fit this category.

As so often, the interior here reveals that this bottle was moulded in two vertical sections that were then luted together at the narrow sides and across the base. Once the two halves were luted together, the joint on the inside would be left rough, while the exterior would be finished by hand to eliminate signs of the joint. Such hand-finishing was almost certainly standard to all of the better-quality moulded porcelain bottles and must be taken into account when comparing details to identify particular moulds.

The glaze covers all exterior surfaces here; like nos. 1166 and 1167, it can only have been fired set upside down on a rod of some sort.