A very rare yellow-ground and iron-red decorated 'dragon' jar, Mark and period of Jiajing | 明嘉靖 黃地紅彩雲龍紋罐 《大明嘉靖年製》款

Collection of the Manno Art Museum, Osaka, no. 388.

Christie's Hong Kong, 28th October 2002, lot 540.

大阪萬野美術館藏品，編號388

香港佳士得2002年10月28日，編號540

Selected Masterpieces of the Manno Collection, Osaka, 1988, pl. 117.

《萬野コレクション撰集》，大阪，1988年，圖版117

Contrasting colours and longevity motifs are perhaps the two most characteristic features of Jiajing imperial porcelains. The juxtaposition of the imperial five-clawed dragon with sprays of longevity fungus, instead of the usual lotus scrolls, links the ruler in a most obvious symbolism to long life, and reflects the Jiajing Emperor's fervent pursuit of longevity and attachment to Daoist practises promising the attainment of immortality. The auspicious message is here carried through even in the colour scheme, where yellow, the imperial colour, is surrounded by red, the colour of good luck. Combinations of two different glaze colours are characteristic of the Jiajing reign, but the present one is a rare case where the two colours are superimposed and had to be fired at different times and different temperatures.

A jar of this design from the Avery Brundage Collection in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco is illustrated in He Li, Chinese Ceramics. A New Standard Guide, London, 1996, pl. 483; another in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, was included in the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition Iron in the Fire, Oxford, 1988, cat. no. 64; one in the Matsuoka Museum of Art, Tokyo, is illustrated in Toyo toji meihin zuroku [Catalogue of masterpieces of Oriental ceramics], Matsuoka Bijutsukan, Tokyo, 1991, cat. no. 82.

嘉靖御瓷，顏色比對分明，紋飾寓意祥瑞。五爪龍紋與靈芝圖案並飾，較為罕見，充分凸顯皇帝欲求不老長生、得道成仙之意願，此作紅黃相配，「黃」為帝王用色，「紅」則表意幸運，兩種色彩相輔相成，實屬難得。

同類紋樣作例，可見艾弗里．布倫德基藏品，現存三藩市亞洲藝術博物館，收錄於賀利，《Chinese Ceramics. A New Standard Guide》，倫敦，1996年，圖版483。牛津阿什莫林博物館另有一件，收錄於東方陶瓷學會展覽圖錄《Iron in the Fire》，牛津，1988年，編號64。一件東京松岡美術館藏品，收錄於《東洋陶磁名品圖錄》，松岡美術館，東京，1991年，編號82。