A unique and outstanding imperial blue and white 'dragon' ewer, Ming dynasty, Yongle period | 明永樂 御製青花雲龍紋執壺 Property from a Distinguished Asian Collection A unique and outstanding imperial blue and white 'dragon' ewer, Ming dynasty, Yongle period 亞洲顯赫私人珍藏 明永樂 御製青花雲龍紋執壺 22.5 cm masterfully constructed with striking precision and the upper elements of the vessel forming a straight line, the pear-shaped body resting on a splayed foot and rising to a slender neck and flared, galleried rim, flanked by a slender curved spout and a grooved strap handle with an eyelet for attachment to the cover, each main side of the vessel gently flattened and decorated with a subtly raised peach-shaped panel painted in rich cobalt-blue tones with a powerfully rendered five-clawed dragon soaring with an upturned head amidst flaming wisps detailed with ruyi -heads, the two dragons skilfully portrayed in direct mirror image, all above a frieze of stylised cloud scrolls encircling the lower body above the key-fret bordered footrim, all below borders of lotus petals and foliate motifs around the neck, interrupted by the strap handle on one side where it joins the neck, the handle elegantly formed with a ruyi -head terminal where it meets the body of the vessel, further painted along its length with a foliate lotus scroll, all enclosed within a double-line border, the lotus motif echoed on the opposite side at the base of the spout and rendered in a barbed cartouche enclosing exquisitely painted meandering lotus scrolls 執壺胎質淨白，釉層晶瑩，撫之如脂，讓人愛不釋手。器呈梨式，頸細口外撇，肩垂腹扁圓，壺流纖細婉麗，與執柄曲弧相得益彰，整體比例恰到好處，賞心悅目。器腹兩面微隆作桃式開光，濃青妙繪，畫五爪雲龍，如鏡像對照，昂首壺流一方，傾倒時恰好凝視瓊漿。龍目圓瞪，短髮揚起，彷彿剛從高空俯身降臨，旋即展腿張爪，便欲仰首騰飛，祥雲縈繞，英姿矯健。身置桃式開光中，構圖飽滿，卻不感拘束，自在傲翔。從器頸至足牆，輔飾蓮瓣、卷草、回紋等，呼應流根菱式開光及柄上的纏枝蓮紋，渾然一體，極具巧思。永樂重器，傳世孤品，奠定明代御瓷龍紋基礎，誠皇權象徵的極致。 来源: Hugh Moss Ltd, London. Sotheby's London, 8th July 1974, lot 199. Sotheby's London, 5th July 1977, lot 205. Collection of T.Y. Chao (1912-1999), Hong Kong. T.Y. Chao Family Trust property, no. 13. Sotheby's Hong Kong, 19th May 1987, lot 228 and dust jacket. 莫士撝，倫敦 倫敦蘇富比1974年7月8日，編號199 倫敦蘇富比1977年7月5日，編號205 趙從衍（1912-1999年）收藏，香港 趙從衍家族基金會藏品，編號13 香港蘇富比1987年5月19日，編號228及封套 文学: Ming and Ch'ing Porcelain from the Collection of the T.Y. Chao Family Foundation , Hong Kong, 1978, cat. no. 14. S.T. Yeo and Jean Martin, Chinese Blue and White Ceramics , Singapore, 1978, col. fig. 3. Sotheby's Hong Kong Twenty Years, 1973-1993 , Hong Kong, 1993, pl. 52. Sotheby's. Thirty Years in Hong Kong , Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 209. 《趙從衍家族基金會珍藏明清瓷器展覽圖錄》，香港，1978年，編號14 楊勝德及馬紀恩，《中國青花瓷器》，新加坡，1978年，彩圖3 《香港蘇富比二十週年》，香港，1993年，圖版52 《香港蘇富比三十週年》，香港，2003年，圖版209 拍品专文: Made for Use by the Yongle Emperor Regina Krahl This ewer may look like a classic piece of early Ming imperial porcelain, but it is unique. It can be considered one of the most important pieces of Yongle (1403-24) blue-and-white ware, since it was made not only by the imperial kilns, but specially for the imperial palace. Its motif of five-clawed dragons, rendered in this agitated swerving pose, as if rushing up after having just plunged down, is so familiar to us from imperial Ming porcelain, that we tend to take it for granted. Yet it was hardly ever used prior to the Xuande period (1426-35). The significance of this vessel had not been fully appreciated in the past. Five-clawed dragons were employed as imperial decoration already in the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), but only discarded porcelains with this design are preserved from the kiln site. Such pieces were also produced for the Hongwu Emperor (r. 1368-98), but the few extant pieces are of varying quality and style, as the kilns were probably not yet as tightly organized as later on. It was only in the Yongle period, that the motif seen on this ewer became the blue-print for all later dragon-decorated imperial porcelains. In the Yongle reign, the bulk of blue-and-white wares ordered by the court from the Jingdezhen imperial workshops must have been created with diplomatic gifts to foreign potentates in mind. The massive blue-and-white chargers and jars, which are characteristic of the period, were official commissions made by the imperial kilns, but they are not vessels intended for use by the Yongle Emperor. Besides this mainstream production, however, the potters at Jingdezhen had already started to work on a very different line of porcelains suitable for use at court. The Yongle strata of the kilns’ waste heaps have yielded experimental pieces with five-clawed dragons painted in cobalt blue, copper red as well as other colours, and moulded in anhua or applied in gold. Very few of these pieces seem, however, to have been considered successful enough to allow delivery to the court; they were largely destroyed there and then. These imperial pieces with five-clawed dragons are delicately potted, small in scale and restrained in style, as the potters must have endeavoured to create for the court something distinctly different from the general production. This may have had to do with the transfer of the capital from Nanjing to Beijing, where the construction of the Emperor’s new imperial palace, started in 1406, may have called for the provision of imperial porcelains. The Yongle Emperor’s personal interest in porcelain is also documented through the appearance of the first imperial reign marks, inscribed on monochrome wares and on small blue-and-white cups. He thus initiated a trend that was followed by all later emperors who reigned long enough to start their own production. This elegant five-clawed dragon motif became one of the prime designs on Xuande imperial blue-and-white, when we see it on bowls of various different forms, dishes, stem bowls and stem cups, brush washers, small ewers, monk’s cap ewers and other vessels. It is similarly found on the wares of the Chenghua (1465-87) and Hongzhi (1488-1505) reigns and became the main design of Zhengde (1506-21) blue-and-white. Yet it is rare as star dust on Yongle porcelain, and the present ewer would seem to be the most desirable of the few examples known to exist. A Yongle brush washer in the Capital Museum, Beijing, shows a similar dragon inside and small dragon medallions around the outside, see Shoudu Bowuguan cang ci xuan [Selection of porcelains from the Capital Museum], Beijing, 1991, pl. 90 ( fig. 1 ); a Yongle bowl with two dragons on the outside in the Palace Museum, Beijing, is illustrated in Geng Baochang, ed., Gugong Bowuyuan cang Ming chu qinghua ci [Early Ming blue-and-white porcelain in the Palace Museum], Beijing, 2002, vol. 1, pl. 46 ( fig. 2 ). Five-clawed dragons also appear on a few libations cups of jue shape and their mountain-centred stands which were intended for use at the court, but for ritual purposes. Two sets of jue cup and stand with five-clawed dragons are in the National Palace Museum ( Shi yu xin: Mingdai Yongle huangdi de ciqi/Pleasingly Pure and Lustrous: Porcelains from the Yongle Reign (1403-1424) of the Ming Dynasty , National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2017, pp. 20-23) ( fig. 3 ); fragmentary pieces were recovered from the kiln site, see Jingdezhen Zhushan chutu Yongle guanyao ciqi [Yongle Imperial porcelain excavated at Zhushan, Jingdezhen], Capital Museum, Beijing, 2007, pl. 98; and one stand from the Frederick M. Mayer and Meiyintang collections was sold in these rooms, 5th October 2011, lot 37. The dating of the present ewer to the Yongle period is confirmed by a piece of the same form, design and painting style, discarded at the manufactory, perhaps on account of its fuzzy blue design, excavated at Zhushan, Jingdezhen, and published in Jingdezhen chutu Mingdai yuyao ciqi [Porcelains from the Ming imperial kilns excavated at Jingdezhen], Beijing, 2009, pl. 040 ( fig. 4 ). A small number of other dragon-decorated pieces exist of the early Ming period, where a Yongle date could perhaps be envisaged, but is debatable. A Hongwu date is more likely for a dish in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, included without specific date in the Museum’s early Ming exhibition ( Mingdai chunian ciqi tezhan mulu/Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Early Ming Period Porcelain , National Palace Museum, Taibei, 1982, cat. no. 52), but not forming part of the Yongle exhibition ( Shi yu xin , op.cit. ). It is probably of the same type as two dishes in the Palace Museum, Beijing, with three incised clouds in the centre and anhua dragons around the inner sides, which Geng Baochang attributes to the Yongle period, although duly noting himself that they are extremely similar to Hongwu pieces (Geng, op.cit. , pls 44 and 45). An unmarked bowl with barbed dragon panels in the Shanghai Museum has been attributed to the Xuande period in Lu Minghua, Shanghai Bowuguan zangpin yanjiu daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections. A Series of Monographs: Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, pl. 3-32; and a pear-shaped bottle with dragon design in the National Palace Museum, has been attributed to the Interregnum period (1436-1464) (Tsai Mei-fen and Weng Yu-wen, eds, Lan bai hui ying. Yuan cang Mingdai qinghua ci zhan/Radiating Hues of Blue and White. Ming Dynasty Blue-and-White Porcelains in the National Palace Museum Collection , National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2015, cat. no. 46), even though a Yongle example of similar type was found at the kiln site ( Jingdezhen Zhushan chutu Yongle guanyao ciqi , op.cit. , cat. no. 62). The dragons on the present ewer are rendered in direct mirror image, both looking up, as it were, towards the liquid pouring from the spout. The animals’ bodies are superbly laid out to fill the ewer’s raised panels on both sides, leaving little space around them to be filled with cloud motifs. The six borders around neck, tip of spout and foot of the ewer, which are all different, are testimony to the well-developed repertoire of the imperial kilns already at this early period. Congenial in its three-dimensional conception is the design around the bottom of the spout: a barbed lozenge-shaped panel on the ewer’s body is echoed both on the front and the back of the spout itself, thus presenting a harmonious entity from whatever side it is viewed. The vessel’s superb shape is remarkable for the long slender spout that ends flush with the rim and stayed true to form in the firing although it was constructed without the usual supporting strut to link it to the neck. This form is recorded in a line drawing in Geng Baochang, Ming Qing ciqi jianding [Appraisal of Ming and Qing porcelain], Hong Kong, 1993, p. 44, fig. 71 as a Xuande form, although no examples other than the present ewer and the discarded piece from the kiln site appear to be preserved. Closest in shape to our piece is an undecorated pure gold ewer from the opulently furnished mausoleum of Zhu Zhanji, Prince Zhuang of Liang (1411-1441), ninth son of the Hongxi Emperor who ruled for less than a year between the Yongle and Xuande reigns ( fig. 5 ). The mausoleum was discovered in Zhongxiang City, Hubei, but the ewer bears an inscription stating that it was made by the imperial Jewelry Service ( yinzuoju ). It is dated first month, first year of the Hongxi reign, which means it was inscribed immediately after the Yongle Emperor’s death in 1424, but may well have been commissioned earlier, see Liang Zhu, ed., Liang Zhuang wang mu/Mausoleum of Prince Liang Zhuangwang , Beijing, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 32-3, figs 25-6 and vol. 2, col. pls 18-19. This ewer is somewhat more slender and has a strut that joins spout and neck, but appears to be of the same size (26.4 cm with cover). The Jingdezhen kilns also tried out related forms in monochrome white. A vase and a ewer, both with these distinctive peach-shaped panels – in China often called ‘chicken-heart’ shaped – were recovered from the kiln site, the latter somewhat more squat, lacking a foot and with a square spout, see Jingdezhen Zhushan chutu Yongle guanyao ciqi , op.cit. , nos 4 and 5. A gold and a silver ewer of this second form were also found in Prince Liang’s mausoleum, see Liang Zhu, op.cit. , vol. 1, p. 34, figs 27-8; p. 40, fig. 38 and vol. 2, col. pls 20-21 and 31. Another imperial gold ewer of this latter shape but probably of Xuande date, bejewelled and decorated with incised five-clawed dragons, formerly in the Eumorfopoulos collection, was sold in our London rooms, 31st May 1940, lot 509, and is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, illustrated in R. Soame Jenyns and William Watson, Chinese Art , vol. 2, Fribourg, 1980 (1963), col. pl. 3 ( fig. 6 ). Ewers of this elongated shape are generally believed to have been used as wine ewers, but a white ewer of similar form, clearly rendered in an anonymous set of Ming paintings depicting eighteen scholars practising the ‘four arts’ (calligraphy, painting, chess and playing the qin zither), has been interpreted as a tea pot, see Ye keyi qing xin – cha qi, cha shi, cha hua/Empty Vessels, Replenished Minds: The Culture, Practice, and Art of Tea , National Palace Museum, Taipei, 2002, cat. no. 62. Tea pots have often, however, more squat proportions. T.Y. Chao (1912-1999, fig. 7 ), the former owner of this ewer, shipping magnate and real estate developer of Hong Kong, collected for many decades Chinese classical paintings and calligraphies, ceramics and jades. Parts of his collection were exhibited in the 1970s under the names T.Y. Chao Family Foundation and Wah Kwong Collection, respectively. Many of his ceramics were dispersed in 1986 and 1987, in two major auctions at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. The present ewer featured on the dust jacket of the 1987 sale catalogue ( fig. 8 ). 御壺君心 康蕊君 此件執壺盡顯明初御瓷風采，實為孤品，堪稱永樂（1403-24年）青花最上瓷珍，非但出自御窰廠，更專供皇廷帝苑。五爪龍俯身仰首、蜿蜒騰空，於明代御瓷屢見不鮮，乍看不奇，然宣德（1426-35年）之前甚少用之，是故此件有待充分賞識。 早在元代（1279-1368年），五爪龍紋已為皇家御用，然窰址僅存五爪龍紋殘器。洪武帝（1368-98年在位）亦燒五爪龍，然存例寥寥，品相良莠不齊，風格亦各有別，或因諸窰口管理尚未井然。惟至永樂，五爪龍乃得臻善，垂範後世御瓷龍紋。 永樂一朝，景德鎮御窰廠奉命產燒大量青花瓷以供外事，禮待友邦之君。青花大盤、大罐為此朝經典，車載斗量，皆由御窰廠訂燒，其數雖多，卻非供永樂帝之用。大宗產燒之外，景德鎮陶匠另開一路，專製宮廷用瓷。永樂堆積層有殘器出土，可窺見五爪龍紋有諸般嘗試，或施鈷藍、銅紅及彩料，或作暗花、描金，然成器可進宮呈獻者極少，乃大量銷毀，棄擲邐迤。御窰所出五爪龍紋器窰工精湛，尺寸小巧，風格矜重；為獻宮廷，瓷匠殫精竭慮，但求別出心裁。永樂帝自南京遷都至北京，1406年始建紫禁城，宮中瓷器應亟需充盈，以五爪龍紋製瓷或與此有關。永樂帝對瓷器情有獨鍾，首個帝王年款便是永樂帝所施，初見於單色釉及青花小盃上，自此開天闢地，後世歷代君王凡長治久安、大興窰業者皆紛紛效仿。 宣德御製青花上，五爪龍紋登峰造極，各類盌、盤、高足盌、高足盃、筆洗、執壺、僧帽壺等均有演繹。成化（1465-87年）、弘治（1488-1505年）二朝亦復如是，而至正德（1506-21年），五爪龍紋已成青花主要紋飾。反觀永樂，五爪龍紋寥若晨星，屈指數件中，此執壺尤令人心往神馳。 比較北京首都博物館藏一永樂筆洗，器內一龍，與此肖似，器外作團龍紋，繞器一周，見《首都博物館藏瓷選》，北京，1991年，圖版90（ 圖一 ）；及北京故宮博物院藏一永樂盌，器外雙龍，錄耿寶昌編，《故宮博物院藏明初青花瓷》，北京，2002年，卷1，圖版46（ 圖二 ）。 五爪龍紋亦見於爵盃及歇爵山盤，爵盃連托僅奉宮廷，作祀禮之用。台北故宮有爵盃連托兩套，皆飾五爪龍紋（《適於心：明代永樂皇帝的瓷器》，故宮博物院，台北，2017年，頁20-23； 圖三 ）；窰址有殘件出土，錄於《景德鎮珠山出土永樂官窰瓷器》，首都博物館，北京，2007年，圖版98；Frederick M. Mayer 及玫茵堂遞藏一件歇爵山盤，售於香港蘇富比2011年10月5日，編號37。 此件執壺斷代永樂，乃以一殘器考證而得。無論器形、紋飾、畫片風格，殘器均與此件如出一轍，或因青花發色不佳被棄，於珠山出土，景德鎮，刊於《景德鎮出土明代御窰瓷器》，北京，2009年，圖版040（ 圖四 ）。 另有若干明初瓷器以龍紋為飾，或到代永樂，然尚存爭議。台北故宮藏有一盤，未明確定代，疑為洪武，展於該館明初特展（《明代初年瓷器特展目錄》，故宮博物院，台北，1982年，編號52），永樂特展（前述《適於心》）則無展示。北京故宮蓄有兩盤，器心刻三朵祥雲，內壁作龍紋暗花，與台北故宮例應屬一類，耿寶昌定其為永樂，然亦指出與洪武例極似（耿寶昌，前述出處，圖版44及45）。 上海博物館藏有一盌，無款，菱口開光飾龍紋，定為宣德，錄於陸明華，《上海博物館藏品研究大系：明代官窰瓷器》，上海，2007年，圖版3-32；台北故宮藏有一玉壺春瓶，飾龍紋，定空白期（1436-1464年）（蔡玫芬、翁宇雯編，《藍白輝映：院藏明代青花瓷展》，故宮博物院，台北，2015年，編號46），然一永樂例與之相類，窰址出土（《景德鎮珠山出土永樂官窰瓷器》，前述出處，編號62）。 此執壺龍紋呈鏡像對稱，均昂首望上，傾倒時恰如注視水流。兩側隆起處各作開光，龍軀置於其中恰到好處，稍餘留白，添飾祥雲。頸、流口及圈足上共計六圈紋飾，各不相同，可見御窰廠早在明初已技藝嫻熟。流底就器身構造因地制宜，開光作飾，極具巧思：器身菱口開光，與流之前後皆可呼應，不同角度觀之，皆渾然一體，賞心悅目。 流嘴修長，與口沿齊平，尤顯器形曼妙；執壺流、頸之間常設連接板作支撐，此件不設，窰燒亦無失真，實屬難得。有圖線繪此形，載於耿寶昌，《明清瓷器鑑定》，香港，1993年，頁44，圖71，書中定為宣德，然除此執壺及窰址殘器外，未見第三例存世。 論器形，有一純金執壺與此件甚似，光素無紋，出土於梁莊王朱瞻垍（1411-1441年）之陵（ 圖五 ）；永宣之交，洪熙帝在位不足一年，朱瞻垍乃洪熙帝第九子，陵寢富麗，位於湖北鍾祥市。該執壺帶銘文，可知由銀作局造，署時洪熙元年元月，即永樂帝1424年駕崩後未久，然應早已成器，見梁柱編，《梁莊王墓》，北京，2007年，卷1，頁32-3，圖25-6，及卷2，彩圖版18-19。較之此件，金執壺更為纖柔，且帶連接板，然尺寸相當（連蓋26.4公分）。 景德鎮亦以單色白釉試新。窰址出一瓶、一執壺，均作開光呈桃形，中國又稱「雞心形」；其中，執壺更矮，無圈足，帶方流，見《景德鎮珠山出土永樂官窰瓷器》，前述出處，編號4及5。梁莊王墓另有執壺出土，呈此樣式，一金一銀，見梁柱，前述出處，卷1，頁34，圖27-8，頁40，圖38，及卷2，彩圖版20-21、31。仍有一御製金執壺，呈此樣式，年代或為宣德，嵌寶為飾，且刻五爪龍紋，尤莫弗普勒斯舊藏，曾售於倫敦蘇富比1940年5月31日，編號XXX，現藏於費城藝術博物館，錄入 R. Soame Jenyns 及 William Watson，《Chinese Art》，卷2，弗里堡，1980年（1963年），彩圖版3（ 圖六 ）。 此類執壺器形修長，公認為酒器，然一佚名明人圖卷描繪十八學士行四藝（琴棋書畫）之樂，畫中白釉執壺卻作茶器，見《也可以清心：茶器、茶事、茶畫》，故宮博物院，台北，2002年，編號62。按說茶器往往低矮。 此執壺乃一代船王兼香港地產大亨趙從衍（1912-1999年， 圖七 ）舊藏，數十年間，趙氏蒐藏中國書畫、陶瓷、玉器，部分雅蓄曾於七十年代以趙從衍家族基金會及華光草堂之名展覽。1986、1987年，香港蘇富比舉辦兩場重頭拍賣，趙氏藏瓷大量釋出，此件便是1987年拍賣圖錄封面重器（ 圖八 ）。 展出: Ming and Ch'ing Porcelain from the Collection of the T.Y. Chao Family Foundation , Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1978. 《趙從衍家族基金會珍藏明清瓷器》，香港藝術館，香港，1978年