Lot 54: Doucai Jar with Ying Dragon Design 斗彩应龙纹天字罐

来源：于八十年代购自香港私人收藏家
Provenance: Acquired from a private collector in Hong Kong in the 1980s

Diameter 口径 5.5 cm Overall Height 通高 10.2 cm Height 高 9.6 cm Foot Diameter 足径 7 cm

Estimate 估价: SGD 2,500,000 – SGD 3,800,000
Starting Price 起拍价: SGD 2,000,000

直口，丰肩，弧壁，圈足，平盖，盖面微拱。外壁以青花绘应龙纹，应龙二足三爪，朵云填绿彩，上下各绘填矾红的变形莲瓣一周。底书一“天”字。

应龙又称“翼龙”，即龙之有双翅者，于《山海经》、《淮南子》等诸多古籍中均有记述。随着人们对应龙纹的不断神化，又有如“虺五百年化为蛟，蛟千年化为龙，龙五百年为角龙，千年为应龙”的说法。

The jar is potted with a straight mouth, full shoulders, rounded sides and a ring foot, and is fitted with a flat cover with a slightly domed top. The exterior is painted in underglaze blue with an yinglong dragon design. The yinglong is depicted with two legs and three claws, while the cloud motifs are picked out in green enamel. The upper and lower sections are each encircled by a band of stylised lotus petals filled in iron red. The base is inscribed with a single character, “Tian” (“Heaven”).

Yinglong, also known as the “winged dragon”, refers to a dragon with a pair of wings and is recorded in ancient texts such as the Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Huainanzi. As the image of the yinglong became increasingly mythologised, later tradition held that “after five hundred years a hui-serpent transforms into a jiao dragon; after a thousand years the jiao becomes a dragon; after five hundred more years the dragon becomes a horned dragon; and after a further thousand years it becomes an yinglong.”