Imperial Dragon

1800 –1920
Height: 7.75 cm
Mouth/lip: 0.70/1.33 cm
Stopper: bronze, with integral collar, screw-threaded cork and spoon; original

Provenance:
Unidentified dealer, Beijing (1924)
Ko Collection
Christie’s, London, 9 October 1974, lot 176
Drouot, Paris (Etude Jutheau) 13 October 1995, lot 183
Robert Hall (1995)
The Bloch Collection
Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, 26 November 2013, lot 130
Hugh Moss (HK) Ltd.

Published:
Treasury 7, no. 1615

 

Bronze; with a flat lip and protruding flared, flat foot, the inner neck with a clockwise screw thread; carved with a continuous design of a five-clawed imperial dragon, its body stamped to indicate scales, amidst formalized clouds, spewing forth a stream of vaporous liquid containing a flaming pearl.

Alexander Whittaker