AN EXTREMELY RARE CHINESE BLUE AND WHITE 'DRAGON' BOWL OR MORTAR

£40,000 - £60,000

AN EXTREMELY RARE CHINESE BLUE AND WHITE 'DRAGON' BOWL OR MORTAR
SIX-CHARACTER XUANDE MARK AND OF THE PERIOD 1426-35

Thickly potted, the exterior painted in underglaze blue with two five-clawed dragons amongst flames and clouds set above a band of lappets and beneath a band of crashing waves to the rim, the interior unglazed, 16.5cm.

From an English private collection, Dorset, purchased from John Berwald, 13th November 2014, a copy of the invoice is available.

A mortar of this type, but larger, was excavated from the Xuande stratum at the site of the Ming Imperial Factory, it was later included in the Chang Foundation Exhibition, Xuande Imperial Porcelain Excavated at Jingdezhen, illustrated in the catalogue, pl.16-2; pl.14 also shows a similar undecorated mortar with an incised Xuande mark of comparable size to the present lot.

明宣德青花雲龍趕珠紋缽
《大明宣德年製》
來源：英國多切斯特郡私人收藏，2014年11月13日購於John Berwald（附發票復印件）。