D2531. Blue and White Ovoid Jar and Cover

Delft, circa 1690

Marked GK in blue for Gerrit Pietersz. Kam, owner of the Drie Posteleyne Astonne (The Three Porcelain Ash-Barrels) factory from 1679 to 1700

Painted boldly around the body with eight scaly dragons against a ground of entangled flowering lotuses loops continuing onto the cover, its slightly domed top with a single dragon on top amidst the lotuses.

DIMENSIONS
Height: 35 cm. (13.8 in.)

PROVENANCE
Swedish Private Collection

NOTE
Auspicious, mythical and intriguing, the dragon was a creature that found its way onto Delftware from the Chinese porcelain and other decorative arts imported by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) in the seventeenth century.

The origins of mythical Chinese dragons are vague, however it is believed that over 4,000 years ago, China was made up of two large tribes and several smaller tribes, all of which were symbolized by an animal. When the two large tribes unified, they chose the dragon as their symbol. The Han Chinese still claim to be descendants of this beastly creature. The earliest depictions of the Chinese dragon can be found on Neolithic pottery and on the Bronze Age ritual vessels and other artifacts from the Shang (1600-1100 BC) and Zhou (1100 BC-256 AD) dynasties. According to manuscripts of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the dragon (represented by the traditional or simplified character), was an animal composed of various parts of nine other animals, including: “the head of an ox or donkey, the eyes of a shrimp, the horns of a deer, the feet of a phoenix, and the body of a serpent covered with the scales of a fish.” Assuming the best traits of the tiger, the fish, the serpent and the eagle, it was considered the most superior, powerful, wise and regal of beasts, and eventually it became associated with the emperor (the empress’s symbol being the mythical bird, the fenghuang, also referred to as the august rooster or the Chinese phoenix).

In Chinese art, the dragon is often depicted clutching or chasing after a pearl, which is emblematic of the beast’s supernatural powers. The dragon is revered as a divine creature that symbolizes good fortune, far from the terrifying and evil creature it came to represent in the West, where, through Europe’s own legends, it was the dragon-slayer who was the symbol of might, supremacy and heroism. Although the mythical dragon is a rare motif on Delftware, there are several Delftware objects with a rather similar depiction to the dragon. However, Delft potters and especially the ceramic painters imitated motifs from Chinese porcelain without understanding their symbolism. The dragon pattern was closely imitated and emulated after Chinese porcelain and there are various sorts of Delft tableware with this type of decoration, plates and egg cups, but also salt cellars and an oil and vinegar ménage (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, inv. nos. BK-1961-33-A, BK-1961-33-B and BK-1961-32). It is assumed that these objects were possibly used to complement a Chinese porcelain service.

SIMILAR EXAMPLES
A jar and cover with similar decoration, featuring four dragons amid intertwined flowering lotus vines, illustrated in Aronson 2012, p. 27, no. 14, and attributed to Theodorus Witsenburgh, who owned De Witte Ster (The White Star) factory from 1690 until his death in 1700, after which it was likely operated by his family until 1705. This indicates that the pattern was produced by several different Delftware factories. Another similar, covered jar with slighlty larger dragons, is in the Prinsenhof Museum in Delft (inv. no. LM 2173).