A very rare large doucai 'dragon' fish bowl, Mark and period of Wanli | 明萬曆 鬪彩龍紋大缸 《大明萬曆年製》款

Collection of Lady Bruntisfield.

Christie's London, 6th December 1965, lot 112.

Collection of Dr Wou Kiuan (1910-1997).

Wou Lien-Pai Museum, 1968-present, coll. no. M.7.18.

Bruntisfield女士收藏

倫敦佳士得1965年12月6日，編號112

吳權博士 (1910-1997) 收藏

吳蓮伯博物院，1968年至今，編號M.7.18.

Wanli (r. 1573-1620) fish bowls were produced in varying form and size, but this piece is particularly rare for its dynamic design. With two imperial five-clawed dragons among large yellow sprigs of lingzhi and lotus plants, symbolising immortality and harmony respectively, all above crushing waves which denote jiangshan (‘the land of a kingdom’), the motifs of this bowl convey auspicious wishes for the empire. Only one closely related fish bowl appears to have been recorded, a vessel of smaller scale (measuring 39.4cm in diameter), formerly in the collection of Ruth and Bruce Dayton, now preserved in the Minneapolis Institute of Art, accession no. 2000.34.5.

There are two other groups of Wanli fish bowls with designs related to the present piece, both have their rim decorated with a ruyi-head border. The first group has the six-character Wanli mark inscribed beneath the rim within a double rectangle and the background decorated with sprigs of lingzhi only. Compare, for example, a similarly sized vessel (diameter 55cm), with sides straighter than this bowl, formerly in the collection of Harvey Hadden, now in the British Museum, London (accession no. 1931,0511.1), illustrated in Jessica Harrison-Hall, Catalogue of Late Yuan and Ming Ceramics in the British Museum, London, 2001, pl. 11:144. A smaller one (diameter 43.3cm) from the Sir Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art and now also in the British Museum (accession no. PDF.728), included in the International Exhibition of Chinese Art, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1935-6, cat. no. 1827, is illustrated in Rosemary Scott and Rose Kerr, Ceramic Evolution in the Middle Ming Period, London, 1994, p. 24, no. 29. The second group has the six-character reign mark inscribed in a rectangular panel on the rim and the dragons are set against a lotus-scroll ground above a border of crested waves. See, for example, a shorter vessel (height 35.6cm) formerly in the collection of Edward T. Chow (1910-1980), subsequently sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 19th May 1981, lot 438.