A pair of large five clawed dragon vases, Qing dynasty, 19th century.
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Baluster shape with red buddhist lions as handles, decorated in the enamel blue and gold with nine five clawed dragons chasing the flaming pearl amidst cloud formations. The interior glazed in turquoise glaze. Height 86 cm. Height with wooden stands 97.5 cm. Diameter of mouth 31 cm.
One vase with restored chip and chips by rim. Wear.
Provenance
From the Collection of Jägmästare Nils and Inga-Lill Hultmark, Torps Egendom, Västergötland.
Nils Hultmark was the son of Jägmästare David Hultmark, brother of Emil and Richard Hultmark, who also collected Asian Ceramics and Works of Art, all members of ‘Kinaklubben’ the China Club in Stockholm in the 1920’s together with Carl Kempe (1884-1967), Ivan Traugott (1871-1952), and the Crown Prince Gustav Adolf. The brothers are well known art collectors in Sweden and built their collections in the golden age of European collection. Nils and Inga-Lill also had a great interest in collecting art and were frequent visitors at the auction and gallery viewings in Stockholm adding well-chosen items to the inherited collection.
The vases were purchased from the Rörstrand Museum Collection, Lidköping. Auction lot no 72, in 1988-08-07.
The photographs from the home at Torps egendom, Västergötland are from the late 1980's.
Literature
A legend explains the reasons why there are 9 dragons as opposed to 8 or 10 in Chinese mythology. According to Zhou Yi (one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts), nine symbolizes yang. Ancient Chinese categorized numbers into yang numbers and yin numbers. Odd numbers signify yang, while even numbers represent yin, and nine is the largest yang number.