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Lot Essay
A Magnificent and Rare Qianlong Dragon Dish
Rosemary Scott, Independent Scholar
This exceptional charger is a rare example of a large imperial Qianlong dish decorated with skilfully-painted dragons depicted in overglaze iron red enamel, combined with rich underglaze cobalt blue waves and clouds. The dish is 48.2 cm in diameter and bears on its base a well-written six-character underglaze blue Qianlong seal mark.
It is very likely that this handsome dish was made in the early part of the Qianlong reign. The vessel bears a very strong resemblance – both in size and decoration - to an underglaze blue and iron red enamel decorated dish of the Yongzheng reign in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (see The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 36, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 245, no. 223). The Yongzheng dish has on its base a six-character underglaze blue mark in clerical script within a double circle. A further Yongzheng example, which has been designated by the Japanese authorities as an ‘Important Art Object’, from the Umezawa Kinenkan Museum is illustrated in Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, p. 352, no. 1055. The close similarity between the Yongzheng and Qianlong vessels suggests that they were made at the Qing imperial kilns within a relatively short time frame.
The other indicator of an early Qianlong date is provided by an entry in the Qinggong neiwufu zaobanchu dang’an zonghui (Zaobanchu archives of the Qing Imperial Household Department). The entry is dated to the twenty-fifth day of the sixth month of the third year of the Qianlong reign (equivalent to 1738). Along with other items presented to the emperor, the entry mentions: yijian Xuanyao hong long qing yun haishui dapan (a large Xuan ware dish with red dragons, blue clouds and waves). It is very probable that this entry indicates a dish similar to the current vessel.
The description ‘Xuan ware’ in the archive entry undoubtedly refers to porcelain of the much-admired Ming dynasty Xuande reign (1425-35). However, it is unlikely that the dish presented to the Qianlong Emperor in 1738 was actually a 15th century dish from the Xuande reign, and it is more likely that it was a contemporary (18th century) dish in Xuande style. Like his father (the Yongzheng Emperor 1723-35) and grandfather (the Kangxi Emperor 1662-1722), the Qianlong Emperor was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable collector of antiques. Many of the works of art made for his court were fashioned in antique style, and indeed some were specifically inscribed fanggu ‘copying the ancient’. Like other connoisseurs throughout the centuries, the Qianlong Emperor particularly admired the porcelains of the Xuande and Chenghua (1464-87) reigns. Indeed, examining the longer inscriptions that he applied to certain porcelains, it can be seen that, when he wished to compliment a ceramic vessel, he often compared it to pieces from the Xuande or Chenghua periods.
While no large blue and red dragon dish of precisely the same size and design appears to have survived from the Xuande reign, nevertheless, a number of decorative elements on the Qing dynasty chargers seem to have taken their inspiration from Xuande porcelains. The most obvious of these is the use of overglaze iron red with underglaze blue – especially in relation to dragons depicted with waves and clouds. As early as the Yongle (1402-24) reign, a small number of porcelains made at the imperial kilns were decorated with red dragons against blue grounds. A case in point is the Yongle stem bowl, which was found at the imperial kilns in 1999, illustrated in The Porcelain of Imperial Kiln in Ming and Qing Dynasties – The New Achievements on Ceramic Archaeology of the Palace Museum and Jingdezhen, Beijing, 2016, pp. 178-9, no 75. On this Yongle stem bowl the dragons and clouds are depicted in underglaze copper red, against a cobalt blue ground. While overglaze iron red was used on imperial porcelains in the Hongwu (1468-98) and Yongle reigns, the combination of overglaze iron red with underglaze cobalt blue does not appear to have become popular until the Xuande reign.
A small group of Xuande bowls, of the type which would originally have had covers and are, therefore, sometimes called hewan, ‘box-bowls’, are decorated around the sides with overglaze iron red dragons amongst underglaze blue clouds, above a band of blue turbulent waves. One such bowl, discovered at Jingdezhen is published in The Porcelain of Imperial Kiln in Ming and Qing Dynasties – The New Achievements on Ceramic Archaeology of the Palace Museum and Jingdezhen, op. cit., p. 118, no. 42. A bowl of this type, complete with its lid, is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei and illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, pp 164-5, no. 55, while another from the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 34, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 254, no. 230, and a fourth is in the collection of Sir Percival David (acc. no. PDF A778). While this arrangement accords with the layout on the sides of the current Qianlong dish, other Xuande vessels provide a link to the decoration in the centre of the dish. The depiction of creatures painted in overglaze iron red against a rich ground of underglaze cobalt blue waves can be seen on a small number of surviving Xuande porcelains, such as a stem cup in the Palace Museum, Beijing, which is illustrated in The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 34, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), op. cit., p. 255, no. 231.
A link with porcelains of the Xuande reign can also be seen in the stance of the dragon in the centre of the current dish. While the dragons around the interior and exterior sides of the dish perambulate amongst clouds and are seen in side-view, the dragon in the central medallion leaps vigorously from the waves facing forward with all four legs stretched out to the sides. The origins of this stance can be seen on early 15th century vessels such as a stem bowl in the Percival David Collection (see Rosemary Scott, Imperial Taste: Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, San Francisco, 1989, p. 63, no. 33). On the side of this stem bowl a copper red dragon leaps vigorously from the blue waves facing forward with all four legs stretched out to the sides. The main difference between the Xuande and Qianlong stances is that while both dragons essentially face forwards with the neck forming a loop above the head, the Xuande dragon’s head is seen in three-quatre view, while the Qianlong dragon’s head is seen full-face.
It is interesting to note that each of the four dragons that decorate the interior and exterior walls of the current charger are different. Two of the creatures are five-clawed and two are three-clawed – suggesting that two relate to the emperor and two relate to a prince. Each dragon has a different stance. One of the five-clawed dragons is depicted looking back over its shoulder, in a pose similar to that seen on one of the dragons which decorate the walls of a large Xuande blue and white dragon dish in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (see The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 34, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), op. cit., p. 140, no. 132). One of the three-clawed princely dragons has bat-like wings. Winged dragons appear on a small number of blue and white decorated porcelains of the Yongle and Xuande reigns. Some of these have fins and some have legs and all have scrolling tails. The examples on this Qianlong dish have no fins, but three claws and a scrolling tail. Perhaps more interesting is the position of the head of this winged dragon. It appears to be looking upwards and in doing so exposes its throat and the underside of its jaw. This particular pose appears to enter the imperial ceramic repertoire in the Yongzheng reign as part of a theme known as ‘the emperor instructing the crown prince’. A Yongzheng blue and white vase from the Robert Chang collection, bearing this design, was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong on 2 November 1999, lot 513. On the sides of this vase two dragons are shown against tempestuous waves – one a powerful five-clawed dragon, representing the emperor; the other, smaller, three-clawed dragon, representing the crown prince, looking up at its father and exposing its throat in the same way as on the current Qianlong dish, and the similar Yongzheng dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing. While the Yongzheng and Qianlong versions of this dish type are extremely similar, it may be noted that on the Yongzheng dish the two three-clawed dragons on the sides follow each other, as do the five-clawed creatures, while on the Qianlong version the three-clawed and five-clawed dragons are alternated.
A large Qianlong dish, which is virtually identical to the current vessel, is in the collection of the Nanjing Museum and was included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, held in Hong Kong in 1995, exhibit 81 (and cover illustration). The pieces from the Nanjing Museum in this exhibition were originally part of the Qing imperial household at the Fengtian Palace (now the Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum, Liaoning province), and the Rehe Palace (now the Chenghe Summer Palace, Hebei province). A further Qianlong-marked dish of this type is in the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, illustrated in Seikado zo Shincho toji. Keitokuchin kanyo no bi, (Qing porcelain collected in the Seikado. Beauty of the Jingdezhen imperial kilns), Tokyo, 2006, no. 53, and another from the Idemitsu Collection is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, no. 956. An additional Qianlong dragon dish of this type is included by Zhou Lili (ed.) in Shanghai Museum Collections research compendium – Qing Dynasty Yongzheng-Xuantong imperial kiln porcelain, Shanghai, 2014, pl. 3-5.
Assuming that the current dish does date to the early part of the Qianlong reign, this would mean that it was made during the tenure of the most famous and respected of all the directors of the imperial kilns, Tang Ying who was resident assistant from 1728 until 1736, when he took over from Nian Xiyao as director – a post he held from 1736 to 1756. As he was a very accomplished ceramicist with particular skill in ceramic designs, the porcelains made at the imperial kilns under Tang Ying are especially prized for their high quality and exceptional decoration. One of the areas in which Tang Ying was particularly skilled was the production of archaistic wares – whether the aspect of the ancient object to be copied was its glaze, its shape, its decorative technique, or its decorative motifs. It has been noted in Zhang Faying, ed., Tang Ying du tao wendang (Documents on the Qing Dynasty Superintendent of Ceramics Tang Ying), Beijing, 2012, pp 148-52 that smaller items were sent from the palace to Tang Ying at Jingdezhen in order to be copied, but, in the case of larger items, such as the current dish, drawings would be sent.
The combination of red dragons with blue clouds and waves clearly held a special appeal for the Qianlong Emperor. This is not surprising considering the auspicious connotations associated with the colour red. The emperor’s partiality for this colour combination on imperial porcelains decorated with five-clawed dragons can be seen not only on spectacular dishes like the current example with overglaze iron red enamel dragons, but on vessels such as a Qianlong moonflask from the Qing court collection preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing which has an underglaze copper red five-clawed dragon with blue clouds and waves (see The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 36, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), op. cit., p. 233, no. 213), and a Qianlong moonflask from the same collection, which has an overglaze rouge red enamel five-clawed dragon with underglaze blue clouds and waves (see ibid., p. 254, no. 232).
Rosemary Scott, Independent Scholar
This exceptional charger is a rare example of a large imperial Qianlong dish decorated with skilfully-painted dragons depicted in overglaze iron red enamel, combined with rich underglaze cobalt blue waves and clouds. The dish is 48.2 cm in diameter and bears on its base a well-written six-character underglaze blue Qianlong seal mark.
It is very likely that this handsome dish was made in the early part of the Qianlong reign. The vessel bears a very strong resemblance – both in size and decoration - to an underglaze blue and iron red enamel decorated dish of the Yongzheng reign in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (see The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 36, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 245, no. 223). The Yongzheng dish has on its base a six-character underglaze blue mark in clerical script within a double circle. A further Yongzheng example, which has been designated by the Japanese authorities as an ‘Important Art Object’, from the Umezawa Kinenkan Museum is illustrated in Mayuyama: Seventy Years, vol. 1, Tokyo, 1976, p. 352, no. 1055. The close similarity between the Yongzheng and Qianlong vessels suggests that they were made at the Qing imperial kilns within a relatively short time frame.
The other indicator of an early Qianlong date is provided by an entry in the Qinggong neiwufu zaobanchu dang’an zonghui (Zaobanchu archives of the Qing Imperial Household Department). The entry is dated to the twenty-fifth day of the sixth month of the third year of the Qianlong reign (equivalent to 1738). Along with other items presented to the emperor, the entry mentions: yijian Xuanyao hong long qing yun haishui dapan (a large Xuan ware dish with red dragons, blue clouds and waves). It is very probable that this entry indicates a dish similar to the current vessel.
The description ‘Xuan ware’ in the archive entry undoubtedly refers to porcelain of the much-admired Ming dynasty Xuande reign (1425-35). However, it is unlikely that the dish presented to the Qianlong Emperor in 1738 was actually a 15th century dish from the Xuande reign, and it is more likely that it was a contemporary (18th century) dish in Xuande style. Like his father (the Yongzheng Emperor 1723-35) and grandfather (the Kangxi Emperor 1662-1722), the Qianlong Emperor was an enthusiastic and knowledgeable collector of antiques. Many of the works of art made for his court were fashioned in antique style, and indeed some were specifically inscribed fanggu ‘copying the ancient’. Like other connoisseurs throughout the centuries, the Qianlong Emperor particularly admired the porcelains of the Xuande and Chenghua (1464-87) reigns. Indeed, examining the longer inscriptions that he applied to certain porcelains, it can be seen that, when he wished to compliment a ceramic vessel, he often compared it to pieces from the Xuande or Chenghua periods.
While no large blue and red dragon dish of precisely the same size and design appears to have survived from the Xuande reign, nevertheless, a number of decorative elements on the Qing dynasty chargers seem to have taken their inspiration from Xuande porcelains. The most obvious of these is the use of overglaze iron red with underglaze blue – especially in relation to dragons depicted with waves and clouds. As early as the Yongle (1402-24) reign, a small number of porcelains made at the imperial kilns were decorated with red dragons against blue grounds. A case in point is the Yongle stem bowl, which was found at the imperial kilns in 1999, illustrated in The Porcelain of Imperial Kiln in Ming and Qing Dynasties – The New Achievements on Ceramic Archaeology of the Palace Museum and Jingdezhen, Beijing, 2016, pp. 178-9, no 75. On this Yongle stem bowl the dragons and clouds are depicted in underglaze copper red, against a cobalt blue ground. While overglaze iron red was used on imperial porcelains in the Hongwu (1468-98) and Yongle reigns, the combination of overglaze iron red with underglaze cobalt blue does not appear to have become popular until the Xuande reign.
A small group of Xuande bowls, of the type which would originally have had covers and are, therefore, sometimes called hewan, ‘box-bowls’, are decorated around the sides with overglaze iron red dragons amongst underglaze blue clouds, above a band of blue turbulent waves. One such bowl, discovered at Jingdezhen is published in The Porcelain of Imperial Kiln in Ming and Qing Dynasties – The New Achievements on Ceramic Archaeology of the Palace Museum and Jingdezhen, op. cit., p. 118, no. 42. A bowl of this type, complete with its lid, is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei and illustrated in Catalogue of the Special Exhibition of Selected Hsüan-te Porcelains of the Ming Dynasty, Taipei, 1998, pp 164-5, no. 55, while another from the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 34, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), Hong Kong, 2000, p. 254, no. 230, and a fourth is in the collection of Sir Percival David (acc. no. PDF A778). While this arrangement accords with the layout on the sides of the current Qianlong dish, other Xuande vessels provide a link to the decoration in the centre of the dish. The depiction of creatures painted in overglaze iron red against a rich ground of underglaze cobalt blue waves can be seen on a small number of surviving Xuande porcelains, such as a stem cup in the Palace Museum, Beijing, which is illustrated in The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 34, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), op. cit., p. 255, no. 231.
A link with porcelains of the Xuande reign can also be seen in the stance of the dragon in the centre of the current dish. While the dragons around the interior and exterior sides of the dish perambulate amongst clouds and are seen in side-view, the dragon in the central medallion leaps vigorously from the waves facing forward with all four legs stretched out to the sides. The origins of this stance can be seen on early 15th century vessels such as a stem bowl in the Percival David Collection (see Rosemary Scott, Imperial Taste: Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation, San Francisco, 1989, p. 63, no. 33). On the side of this stem bowl a copper red dragon leaps vigorously from the blue waves facing forward with all four legs stretched out to the sides. The main difference between the Xuande and Qianlong stances is that while both dragons essentially face forwards with the neck forming a loop above the head, the Xuande dragon’s head is seen in three-quatre view, while the Qianlong dragon’s head is seen full-face.
It is interesting to note that each of the four dragons that decorate the interior and exterior walls of the current charger are different. Two of the creatures are five-clawed and two are three-clawed – suggesting that two relate to the emperor and two relate to a prince. Each dragon has a different stance. One of the five-clawed dragons is depicted looking back over its shoulder, in a pose similar to that seen on one of the dragons which decorate the walls of a large Xuande blue and white dragon dish in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing (see The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 34, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (I), op. cit., p. 140, no. 132). One of the three-clawed princely dragons has bat-like wings. Winged dragons appear on a small number of blue and white decorated porcelains of the Yongle and Xuande reigns. Some of these have fins and some have legs and all have scrolling tails. The examples on this Qianlong dish have no fins, but three claws and a scrolling tail. Perhaps more interesting is the position of the head of this winged dragon. It appears to be looking upwards and in doing so exposes its throat and the underside of its jaw. This particular pose appears to enter the imperial ceramic repertoire in the Yongzheng reign as part of a theme known as ‘the emperor instructing the crown prince’. A Yongzheng blue and white vase from the Robert Chang collection, bearing this design, was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong on 2 November 1999, lot 513. On the sides of this vase two dragons are shown against tempestuous waves – one a powerful five-clawed dragon, representing the emperor; the other, smaller, three-clawed dragon, representing the crown prince, looking up at its father and exposing its throat in the same way as on the current Qianlong dish, and the similar Yongzheng dish in the Palace Museum, Beijing. While the Yongzheng and Qianlong versions of this dish type are extremely similar, it may be noted that on the Yongzheng dish the two three-clawed dragons on the sides follow each other, as do the five-clawed creatures, while on the Qianlong version the three-clawed and five-clawed dragons are alternated.
A large Qianlong dish, which is virtually identical to the current vessel, is in the collection of the Nanjing Museum and was included in the exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, held in Hong Kong in 1995, exhibit 81 (and cover illustration). The pieces from the Nanjing Museum in this exhibition were originally part of the Qing imperial household at the Fengtian Palace (now the Shenyang Imperial Palace Museum, Liaoning province), and the Rehe Palace (now the Chenghe Summer Palace, Hebei province). A further Qianlong-marked dish of this type is in the Seikado Bunko Art Museum, illustrated in Seikado zo Shincho toji. Keitokuchin kanyo no bi, (Qing porcelain collected in the Seikado. Beauty of the Jingdezhen imperial kilns), Tokyo, 2006, no. 53, and another from the Idemitsu Collection is illustrated in Chinese Ceramics in the Idemitsu Collection, Tokyo, 1987, no. 956. An additional Qianlong dragon dish of this type is included by Zhou Lili (ed.) in Shanghai Museum Collections research compendium – Qing Dynasty Yongzheng-Xuantong imperial kiln porcelain, Shanghai, 2014, pl. 3-5.
Assuming that the current dish does date to the early part of the Qianlong reign, this would mean that it was made during the tenure of the most famous and respected of all the directors of the imperial kilns, Tang Ying who was resident assistant from 1728 until 1736, when he took over from Nian Xiyao as director – a post he held from 1736 to 1756. As he was a very accomplished ceramicist with particular skill in ceramic designs, the porcelains made at the imperial kilns under Tang Ying are especially prized for their high quality and exceptional decoration. One of the areas in which Tang Ying was particularly skilled was the production of archaistic wares – whether the aspect of the ancient object to be copied was its glaze, its shape, its decorative technique, or its decorative motifs. It has been noted in Zhang Faying, ed., Tang Ying du tao wendang (Documents on the Qing Dynasty Superintendent of Ceramics Tang Ying), Beijing, 2012, pp 148-52 that smaller items were sent from the palace to Tang Ying at Jingdezhen in order to be copied, but, in the case of larger items, such as the current dish, drawings would be sent.
The combination of red dragons with blue clouds and waves clearly held a special appeal for the Qianlong Emperor. This is not surprising considering the auspicious connotations associated with the colour red. The emperor’s partiality for this colour combination on imperial porcelains decorated with five-clawed dragons can be seen not only on spectacular dishes like the current example with overglaze iron red enamel dragons, but on vessels such as a Qianlong moonflask from the Qing court collection preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing which has an underglaze copper red five-clawed dragon with blue clouds and waves (see The Complete Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 36, Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red (III), op. cit., p. 233, no. 213), and a Qianlong moonflask from the same collection, which has an overglaze rouge red enamel five-clawed dragon with underglaze blue clouds and waves (see ibid., p. 254, no. 232).