A rare blue and white 'dragon' tripod brushwasher Mark and period of Longqing

the flat shallow sides slightly tapered turning in sharply to meet the feet, the exterior well painted in dark tones of cobalt-blue with three five-clawed scaly dragons each in pursuit of a flaming pearl among clouds scrolls between double-line borders, above a band containing the bajixiang also within double-line borders, the feet painted with ruyi motifs, the underside unglazed, the interior glazed white with the six-character mark inscribed in a single horizontal line below the rim

Wares made during the brief six-year reign of the Longqing emperor (1567-72) are small in number and those which bear the imperial reign mark are even rarer. On Longqing ceramic designs, Jessica Harrison-Hall in Ming Ceramics, London, 2001, p. 267, notes that as the reign was so short, stylistically there is little to differentiate them from earlier Jiajing or later Wanli period porcelains. For examples of imperial Longqing wares, see eight pieces in the British Museum, London, illustrated ibid., pls. 10:1 – 10:8.