SHUNZHI PERIOD, CIRCA 1650-1660

The combination of the long-tailed tiger and the scaly dragon emerging from clouds appears to have been a popular theme on a variety of porcelain shapes produced during the Transitional period. For an ovoid jar and cover with a dragon and similar tiger to the present example, see S. Marchant & Son, Exhibition of Chinese Blue and White – Wan Li to K’ang Hsi, 1980, no. 50. The two animals also appear, together with the kylin and phoenix, on a vase in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, illustrated by Michael Butler, Julia B. Curtis and Stephen Little in Shunzhi Porcelain: Treasures from an Unknown Reign, 1644-1661, Alexandria, VA, 2002, p. 99, no.7. Also see lot 3546 in this catalogue for a wucai beaker vase decorated with this theme and a discussion of its Daoist undertones.