Important Chinese Art | 2023 | Sotheby's (sothebys.com)
Important Chinese Art | 2023 | Sotheby's
VIEW PDF CATALOGUE | 瀏覽電子圖錄The Important Chinese Art auction presents a tightly curated sale including rare and important masterpieces with a stellar line-up of some of the rarest and most important works of art, showcasing the sheer breadth an
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A fine, superb and possibly unique carved celadon-glazed 'dragon' vase, meiping, Seal mark and period of Qianlong | 清乾隆 粉青釉淺浮雕五龍圖梅瓶 《大清乾隆年製》款
Lot Sold 47,640,000 HKD
A fine, superb and possibly unique carved celadon-glazed 'dragon' vase, meiping,
Seal mark and period of Qianlong
清乾隆 粉青釉淺浮雕五龍圖梅瓶 《大清乾隆年製》款
masterfully potted of generous proportions with sides steeply rising from a gently splayed foot to broad prominent shoulders and surmounted by a constricted neck and lipped rim, the exterior of the vessel exceptionally and crisply carved in relief with a continuous scene depicting five scaly dragons soaring sinuously amidst cresting and foaming tumultuous waves, the largest beast rendered three-clawed and swooping down from the shoulder with a flaming pearl in its mouth, above a smaller five-clawed dragon emerging from the waves below, a further three-clawed dragon portrayed sinuous and extending vertically along one side of the vessel in pursuit of a flaming pearl, a fourth dragon depicted en face and writhing above a fifth beast with its claws outstretched towards a flaming pearl and rendered partially concealed by the crashing waves below, all against a ground of waves incised over sides of the vase below the lipped rim, veiled overall save for the unglazed footring with a lustrous and translucent bluish-green glaze, the countersunk base centred with a six-character seal mark in underglaze blue
梅瓶小口豐唇，寬肩歛腹，浮雕五龍，遨翔波濤海浪間，身披鱗片，爪趾或三或五，天威盡顯。一龍攀瓶而上，另見游龍兩兩相對，其中一側以蒼龍教子為題，肩上三爪巨龍，口含火珠，威風凛凛，俯視五爪幼龍奪浪而出，寄寓孝賢之道。罩施青釉柔潤晶瑩，翠中泛藍，釉料隨雕刻起伏散聚，層次分明，靈動如生。底書青花六字篆款。
