Authentic Fine Yongzheng Painted Blue & Yellow Porcelain Imperial Dragon Vase. 6-Sided. China.
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The fourth son of Kangxi, Yongzheng was 44 when he succeeded his father. In the reign of Yongzheng, Nian Siyao was the Superintendent of Customs, and most importantly, from 1726 to 1736, director of the Jingdezhen porcelain factory. He personally supervised the pieces made for the Emperor and the court at Peking.
Some palace bowls, dishes, vases and bottles are painted in an extremely refined but elegantly sober manner. The composition is never symmetrical. A single branch of flowering plum, two or three fruits or a bird on a branch will be the only decoration on a bowl or a rimless dish. The perfection of the shape and the quality of the glazes has never been equaled in porcelain since.
The Yongzheng period was indeed a time of fine porcelain. Although they look fragile, they are in fact very hard.
I purchased a few vases from the Moore Watkins Estate, a west coast Asian antiques collector. This is not an antique but is certainly produced with the same standards of the time and the Jingdezhen kilns.
Gold rim. Stand not included.