box;
cover
- Museum number
- 1929,0722.10
- Description
-
Covered and round porcelain box with incised decoration and turquoise enamel on a dark blue ground. This round box has a domed cover with a slightly raised circular top and straight raised edging band around the rim. The tray has a stepped lip to fit inside the cover and a matching straight raised edging band, and stands on a thick low foot ring. Inside the cover is fully glazed, but the tray is glazed inside only at the bottom, not around the sides. The base carries a six-character Chenghua reign mark in blue beneath a blue-white glaze. Characteristically for Chenghua porcelain, this glaze has a yellowish tinge. Decoration is incised and painted in turquoise enamels reserved on a royal-blue ground. The top shows two confronting dragons, with flexed claws and open jaws, fighting over a flaming pearl on a lotus ground. Around the edge of the tray and cover on a lotus scroll ground are three dragons, seen in profile, in different poses: one with closed jaws, one with open jaws and one turning backwards to snarl over its
shoulder. The edges of the tray, cover and foot ring are all incised with an undulating line with individual scroll motifs alternating above and below.
- Production date
- 1465-1487
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 25.50 centimetres (Bottom half)
-
Diameter: 25.50 centimetres (Lid)
-
Height: 7.80 centimetres (Bottom half)
-
Height: 7.10 centimetres (Lid)
-
Height: 13.80 centimetres (closed box)
-
Weight: 1.15 kilograms (Bottom half)
-
Weight: 0.90 kilograms (Lid)
-
Weight: 2.05 kilograms (whole box)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Harrison-Hall 2001:
The tray has been badly broken, restored and filled in some parts. It is quite rare to find such large Chenghua mark and period porcelains. A covered round box of the same size and shape but with unfinished 'doucai' decoration was excavated from the Chenghua strata at Jingdezhen. A Jiajing mark and period (1522-66) covered box with the same decoration and form but with a glossier glaze is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, testifying to the enduring popularity of this design.
- Location
- On display (G33/dc33b/s3)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited;
2012 22 Jun-2013 6 Jan, Beijing, National Museum of China, ‘Passion for Porcelain’
- Acquisition date
- 1929
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1929,0722.10