AN UNDERGLAZE-BLUE AND GREEN ENAMEL 'DRAGON' JAR
Qianlong six-character seal mark in underglaze blue and of the period
The high-shouldered oviform jar painted with in underglaze-blue outlined decoration with a green enamel overglaze, with a wide central band depicting two large five-clawed dragons each chasing a flaming pearl in a continuous scene around the body, the high shoulder with ribboned buddhist objects, bajixiang in a band bordered by ruyi-heads and circular scrolls below the short cylindrical neck and above simple leaf lappets at the tapering foot, the biscuit foot ring cleanly rounded, the base glazed white and centered by the seal mark.
8in (20.3cm) high
Footnotes:
清乾隆 鬥彩綠龍紋瓷罐 青花《大清乾隆年製》篆書款

Provenance:
Purchased in San Francisco in the 1980's, by repute.

來源：
傳二十世紀八十年代購於舊金山

This jar with its underglaze-blue outlined green-enameled dragon motifs is an exemplary example of high Qing Imperial porcelain production. An early use of green enameled dragons appears in the Chenghua period (1465-1487) and remained popular throughout the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. During the Ming period, dragons were mostly incised and reserved in the biscuit before being enameled in green, in the later Qing dynasty they were outlined in underglaze blue in a first firing and then covered with green enamels in the second.

Related vessels can be found in public and private collections; for an example in the Tianminlou Collection, see Chinese Porcelain, The S.C. Ko Tianminlou Collection, vol. 1, Hong Kong, 1987, pl. 114, and another can be found in the Nanjing Museum, see The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 271.

For other examples see Christie's, New York, 22-23 March 2018, lot 760; Bonhams, London, 17 May 2018, lot 250; and Sotheby's, London, 4 November 2021, lot 325 for another of this type with almost identical decoration, though displaying slightly more darkly-fired green enamels, as often seen across this particular group.