A RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'DRAGON' EWERQianlong, the Persian metal cover and mounts 19th century Elegantly potted of flattened pear-shape rising from a short spreading foot, moulded and painted in a vibrant cobalt blue on either side with a tear-drop-shaped panel depicting a writhing five-clawed dragon amidst clouds and flames, reserved on a dense floral meander between key-fret pattern and lappets around the neck and a classic scroll around the foot, the tapered spout with florets and cloud scrolls, and connected to the neck with a ruyi -cloud strut, the metal mount forming the arched handle, the flaring neck and the high domed cover engraved with Arabic calligraphic roundels alternating with rabbits and birds between scrolling arabesques, the finial inset with green glass. 36.9cm (14 1/2in) high. 清乾隆 青花雲龍紋執壺 配鑲十九世紀波斯壺柄及蓋 Provenance : Christie's London, 12 July 2005, lot 169 來源 ：倫敦佳士得，2005年7月12日，拍品編號169 The roundels on the upper and lower parts of the mount are invocations: ya ghafran (O Forgiving One) ya sultan (O Sovereignty) ya Hanan (Opassionate One) ya musta'an (O Requiter) ya 'azum (O Mightly One) The inscribed band on the rim is the basmallah (invocation in the name of Allah) followed by the Qur'anic text of Surah 68, verse 51: Bismillah al-rahman al-rahim wa an yakad al-din kafaru al-yuzliqunak bi-basrihim lama sami'ua al-dhikaru wa yaqulun innhu lamajnun - 'When they hear Our revelations, the unbelievers almost devour you with their eyes. 'He is surely possessed', they say. (Translation from The Koran by N.J.Dawood, Harmondsworth, revised edition, 1979, p.63.) The present lot is extremely rare, and there are only two known blue and white ewers of this type with decoration of dragons and Qianlong mark published. One is in the collection of the Topkapi Saray, Istanbul, illustrated by J.Ayers and R.Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum Istanbul , vol.3, London, 1986, pp.1106-1107, no.2566. See also a ewer from the Roemer-Museum in Hildesheim illustrated by U.Wiesner, Chinesisches Porzellan: Die Ohlmer'sche Sammlung im Roemer-Museum , Mainz am Rhein, 1981, no.70. Pear-shaped ewers, such as the present example, appear to be based on an earlier round sectioned prototype produced during the Yuan and early Ming dynasties, which in turn were inspired by Central Asian and Middle Eastern metal vessels. See, for example, a blue and white ewer, Yongle, Beijing, illustrated in Theplete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum: Blue and White Porcelain with Underglaze Red , vol.1, Hong Kong, 2000, p.43, no.41. Similarities can also be drawn with a group of tianbai ewers, Yongle, excavated from the Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen despite these specimens display a wider neck and a square spout; see Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande periods Excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen , Hong Kong, 1989, pp.96-97, no.7. Although