A VERY RARE CHINESE WUCAI DRAGON BOWL

SIX CHARACTER JIAJING MARK AND OF THE PERIOD 1525-66

The exterior enamelled in aubergine, yellow, green, black and red with two sketchily drawn dragons amidst flames above green breaking waves and blue rockwork, the interior with a dragon roundel and with a band of flowers and foliage to the rim, the base with a three drill hole collector's or inventory mark, 17.5cm.

Provenance: from the collection of Admiral Robert Coote CB (1820-1898), and thence by descent. Admiral Coote enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1833. He was made Commander of HMS Volcano from 1845, HMS Victory from 1860, HMS Gibraltar from 1864 and HMS Arethusa from 1867. In 1874 he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Queenstown and served as Commander-in-Chief of the China Station between 1878-1881.

Cf. R Krahl, Chinese Ceramics from the Meiyintang Collection Volume four (I), pp.166-167, for a related Jiajing marked square bowl also decorated in wucai with aubergine dragons and red and yellow scrolls; see also the Shanghai Museum and the British Museum for further comparisons with bowls.

The three drilled holes to the base is a practice that appears to have been common in Islamic countries. The pattern of three dots drilled in the shape of a triangle is found on 54 Ming porcelain pieces in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul. The exact meaning of the holes remain unclear, although they appear to be collectors' or inventory marks.

Cf. R Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Musuem Istanbul, I, pp125-138, where non-Chinese marks and inscriptions are discussed in detail by Nurdan Erbahar.