A Chinese blanc de Chine bottle vase of bronze form c.1640

A Chinese blanc de Chine bottle vase of bronze form c.1640, with a ribbed slender neck with a garlic bulb below the mouth, entwined in high relief with a chilong dragon holding a leafy branch in its mouth, a little polishing to the mouth, 25.3cm. Provenance: formerly in the collection of Commander T M Blake, British Naval Office 1930-47. Another vase of this unusual large size from the collection of Sir Percival David, BT, was included by Lawrence Binyon and William Llewellyn Lytton in The International Exhibition of Chinese Art, Burlington House 1935-36, no.2602, p.239, and is also illustrated by Margaret Medley in The World's Greatest Collections, Oriental Ceramics, Vol. 6, no. 95, p.174.