jar BM-1984-0303.21

Period:Ming dynasty Production date:1643 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:glazed, underglazed,
Subjects:symbol fish dragon,flower leaf lotus
Dimensions:Height: 29.50 centimetres

Description:
Porcelain ovoid jar and cover with underglaze blue decoration. This oviform jar has a flat slightly concave base and a neck with an out-turned rim. Its cover has a flat top and deep straight sides which fit over the neck of the jar. A ring of glaze is wiped free around the neck where the cover meets it and the glaze also stops short of the base. Inside the jar is glazed but the cover is not. The jar is painted with crackled-ice ground and on either side with leaf-shaped panels. One frames two carp leaping out of cresting waves towards the sun, the other a four-clawed dragon with horns and long whiskers, emerging from mottled clouds. Between these are single lotus reserved in white. Around the neck is a band of clouds between zigzag lines. In addition there are Buddhist and other auspicious emblems, such as the symbol ‘wan’, meaning all that is good, and the rhombus. The cover is decorated with two lotus flowers reserved in white on a blue crackled-ice ground and with a single lotus reserved in white on either side of the cover. Its base is unglazed. Although the shine of the glaze has been eroded by this jar’s three-hundred-year sojourn on the ocean bed, its underglaze decoration is resplendent still.
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall 2001:The carp emerging from the waves to be transformed into a dragon is a metaphor for scholastic success in the civil service examinations. As success in the civil service was supposedly dependent on merit, a man could rise from obscurity to high office by passing official exams.