Contributed by Andrew Nai, SEACS Vice-President (2017-2018), SEACS Life Member
Given that 2024 is the year of the Dragon, I thought I’ll share this interesting dragon bowl in my collection with our SEACS members.
Description: A Fine Blue and White Imperial Dragon Bowl, Qianlong Period. The rounded sides with everted rim, decorated on the exterior with two Ming-style dragons pursuing ‘flaming pearls’ interspersed with cloud scrolls, above a continuous band of crested waves and rocks, the base with four-character hallmark reading ‘Zhi Yuan Tang Zhi’ 《致遠堂製》(Made for the Hall of Extended Remoteness) within a double square, 13.5cm diameter.
Provenance: Christie’s London June 1996, Lot 92; Sotheby’s Melbourne May 2008, Lot 13; Acquired from the above auction
In Chinese culture, the dragon is a mythical beast that descends from the heavens. Dragons often symbolise the Imperial family, the emperor, and/or auspicious events.
The imitation of antiquity, or archaism, was a theme close to the Qianlong Emperor’s heart and a considerable number of imperial art objects in a range of different media demonstrates this.
The dragons on the present bowl have been rendered in a Ming style, very serpentine-like with its arms and legs sprawled outwards in different directions, and its placement against a plain white ground, interspersed with clouds or scrolls, appears to have been a motif that gained popularity from its inception in the Xuande period (1426-35); for example see a meiping, with a Xuande reign mark and of the period, included in the exhibition Imperial Porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande Periods excavated from the Site of the Ming Imperial Factory at Jingdezhen, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 1989, cat. no. 88.
The George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art (commonly shortened to the Gardiner Museum), a ceramics museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has the exact same bowl as mine and two side dishes of the same design and studio hall mark, which can be seen here.
The high-quality, smooth, even and lustrous glaze, fine quality of clay used, craftmanship and foot rim design on this bowl indicates it to have been manufactured during the mid- to-late Emperor Qianlong’s reign.
The fact that the dragons on the bowl each have five claws indicates that it was strictly reserved for use by the emperor only, as it would be a crime that would have capital punishment/disastrous consequences during Emperor Qianlong’s reign for a commoner to go beyond his entitlement/status to own five-claw dragon items.
The Zhi Yuan Tang Zhi 《致遠堂製》mark is quite unique and is included in the appendices table of studio marks of the Emperor Qianlong period, in Geng Baochang’s Ming Qing Ciqi Jianding book page 383, which confirms the age of this bowl.
What is even more interesting is that in the Siku Quanshu, literally known as the Complete Library of The Four Treasuries, which is a Chinese encyclopaedia commissioned by the Emperor Qianlong in 1772 and completed in 1782, there is documented in it a Zhi Yuan Zhai 《致遠斋》in the Jingming Garden (静明园), an imperial garden on the Jade Spring Hill in Beijing, China, west of the Summer Palace. The Jingming Garden (静明园) was given a a large-scale expansion by Emperor Qianlong that created the “Sixteen Scenes of Jingming Garden”, which was the heyday of the Jingming Garden.
The Siku Quanshu also mentioned that Emperor Qianlong composed poems on Zhi Yuan Zhai 《致遠斋》more than 10 times, mostly in his later years. Given the above-mentioned evidence, it is possible/believed that Zhi Yuan Tang《致遠堂》is one of Emperor Qianlong’s studio names and probably several bowls and saucers had been made for his use in Zhi Yuan Zhai 《致遠斋》and the Library of Clear Sound located within the garden premises when he visited to enjoy its natural beauty during his leisure retreats.
While this bowl has been in my collection for more than 15 years, I still enjoy it as much as the first time I set my eyes on it, due to its fine craftmanship, lovely Ming-style dragon design and unique studio hallmark.
