清康熙 青花雙龍雲紋梅瓶 六字楷書款清康熙 青花雙龍雲紋梅瓶 六字楷書款9 3⁄8 in. (23.8 cm.) highDetails A FINE AND RARE BLUE AND WHITE 'DRAGON' VASE, MEIPING KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722)The vase is finely potted with a short tapering neck below a lipped mouth rim. The slightly rounded body is decorated to the sides with two five-clawed sinuous dragons leaping amidst flames.9 3⁄8 in. (23.8 cm.) high Provenance Sold at Parke Bernet, New York, 23-25 September 1943, lot 425 Stephen Junkunc III (1904-1978) CollectionSold at Christie's New York, 21 September 1995, lot 216 Literature Robert Jacobsen, Ye Peilan and Julian Thompson: Imperial Perfection.The Palace Porcelain of Three Chinese Emperors, Kangxi - Yongzheng - Qianlong, Hong Kong, 2004, pp 28, no. 1 Exhibited Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum, Chinese Ceramics, 1952, no. 369On loan to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1997-2020Dragon vases of this type appear with both underglaze-blue and copper-red decorations, although it is rare to find a blue and white example with a Kangxi reign mark. The closest comparisons to the present vase are the examples with identical design and Kangxi marks, an ovoid vase of slightly more elongated form in the Beijing Palace Museum, illustrated in Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 23, pl. 6 (fig 1); one from the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 12 (fig 2); and another one formerly in the J.M. Hu and Robert Chang Collections, later sold at Christie’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2006, lot 1317 (fig 3).Compare also the vases of this form and pattern with Kangxi marks, but painted in underglaze-red, one of more meiping shape in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated op. cit., 1998, pl. 70; one in the Baur Collection, illustrated by John Ayers, Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, Vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pl. 146 [A527]; one from the Sir Harry and Lady Garner Collection, included in the Oriental Ceramic Society Exhibition, Arts of the Ch'ing Dynasty, London, 1964, Catalogue no. 108; one from the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, illustrated by Stephen Bushell, Oriental Ceramic Art, New York, 1897, fig. 225; and another, also more of a traditional meiping shape from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, illustrated by He Li, Chinese Ceramics: A New Comprehensive Survey, San Francisco, 1996, p. 286, pl. 576. A vase decorated in both red and blue but with the same pattern is in the Percival David Foundation, illustrated in Oriental Ceramics, Kodansha Series, vol. 6, Japan, 1982, pl. 208; while a larger vase with the addition of underglaze-blue waves is also illustrated ibid., col. pl. 49. The five-clawed dragon continued as an imperial symbol during the Qing dynasty, and its use was even more severely restricted than in the Ming. The rendition of the dragon on the present lot is characteristic of that in the Kangxi period, which is exemplified by a fierce and powerful demeanour giving an impression of authority and majesty, with finely detailed painting of the head and scales. This is a considerable development from the more freely drawn and often, more simplified, versions of the late Ming dynasty. The full-faced representation of the dragon already existed in Ming times, and became popular in the Qing, but it is from the Kangxi period onwards, as evident from the present lot, that the dragon was imbued with a greater sense of vitality and martial spirit.