A Fine Kangxi Blue and White Porcelain Dish with Dragon and Carp Design c.1700
A fine Kangxi blue and white porcelain Dragon and Carp dish c.1700. Painted in rich vibrant tones of cobalt blue with dramatic version of this design, a large sinewy dragon thrusts its self up through crashing waves below it a carp leaps from the foaming sea. To the left is another carp on the edge of a wave with a thought bubble filled with a slender dragon. The border with crashing waves and prunus flower-heads.
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- Condition
- There is a flat chip to the back of the rim c.9 x 5mm.
- Size
- Diameter 26.5 cm (10 1/2 inches)
- Provenance
- From a Private English Collection of 17th and 18th Century Chinese and Japanese Porcelain.
- Stock number
- 24965
Photos
Information
Dragon :
The Dragon is synonymous with China, it permeates every part of Chinese culture from popular folklore, art, religion to the emperor of China himself. Dragons have been depicted since earliest times. The Dragon, although strong, is in China a benevolent, even positive beast, potent with auspicious powers said to control the Earth and the Heavens. It is associated with life giving rain that nourish crops. This connection with rain and indeed all forms of water could be due to some folklores that says the Dragon is based on the now extinct salt-water crocodile that used to inhabit the rivers of China. The earliest depictions of Dragons in China are so far recorded as being from the Yangshao culture in Henan in the fifth millennium BC from. The five-claw Dragon is reserved as a symbol of the Emperor.
Dragon Gate :
The leaping carp together with the dragon was used as to wish luck in Imperial examinations. The carp struggles, swimming up-stream, eventually reaching it's goal of passing through the Dragon Gate.
Other smaller Kangxi blue and white porcelain plates with the Dragon and Carp design
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