A Wucai Transition censer, 17th Century.
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The censer is decorated with two confronting elongated four clawed scaly dragons, one iron-red and the other green, both chasing a flaming pearl above waves crashing against rocks. Also included are three of the “Eight Precious Objects” - the lozenge that separates the tails of the dragons, the picture and a pair of books entwined in green ribbons between rocks. Made in heavy white porcelain with a slightly bluish glaze. Diameter 23 cm.
Firing defect, starcrack, fritting/chips to rim.
Provenance
Purchased from Woolley & Wallis Salisbury Salesrooms, May 2014. With Blitz Oriental Art, Amsterdam.
The Avalon Collection Part II.
This collection, which in the main focuses on the Interregnum and Kangxi periods has been both carefully and sensitively formed over the last twenty-five years. The collector, a member of the English Oriental Ceramic Society, has assembled the collection with an eye for provenance whilst purchasing from old European collections, well-established antique dealers and at auction.
Academically, the pieces have been well researched both in terms of their symbolism and narrative themes. In many instances the imagery on the pieces has been referenced to episodes in the romantic and historic novels of Chinese mythology, which were used extensively in the decoration of seventeenth century Chinese porcelain.
Literature
For a similar example see “Chinese Export Porcelain From the Museum of Anastacio Goncalves, Lisbon” by Philip Wilson, Page 148, Item 70.