Blue-and-White Flat Bottle with Sea Wave and Dragon Designs

The flat bottle has a round mouth slightly flared along the edge, a long neck that widens gradually, a flat body and an oval base. The entire object is decorated with blue-and-white designs. There are curled grass and entwining lotus around the mouth and neck and blue sea waves and a white dragon on the body. The fierce white dragon swimming in a boundless sea with its head turned back, whiskers fluttering and claws extended looks as if it is about to come to life. The surging and turbulent waves with dark spots appear to be rushing towards the viewer and set off the white dragon in bold relief. The white dragon is brought to life by painting its eyes in blue.
There was a saying during the Xuande period that “Of all the decorations, blue-and-white is the best.” The decoration on this bottle was made by outlining the dragon and its eyes, mane, thick lips, teeth, claws and scales with a pointed tool on the biscuit and painting the surging sea waves around the dragon in blue. The whole bottle was then coated with a transparent glaze before firing it in a high-temperature kiln.
History books say that most of the blue-and-white porcelain objects of the Xuande period were made with the smalt brought back by Zheng He, commander of the Chinese ocean-going fleet in the Ming dynasty, from the Western oceans. It was a deep and bright blue like the colour of sapphire. The lines painted in this colour are often blurred on the edge like the ink in a Chinese ink-and-wash painting. Together with the orderly arranged dark spots, the decoration painted in this colour has an extraordinary artistic effect.