A ‘KRAAK’ ‘BLUE AND WHITE’ BOTTLEChina, late Ming dynasty20 cm highThe pear shaped body decorated with a series of panels with a chi dragon with lion’s head and sinuous body alternating with floral compositions. Provenance: the collection of a Dutch noblewoman lived in Indonesia, acquired before 1975.Similar bottles have been found in the so-called Hatcher Wreck, a Chinese junk wrecked in the sea port of Jakarta around 1643; see also G. Lang, The Wrestling Boys. An exhibition of Chinese and Japanese ceramics from the 16th to the 18th century in the collection at Burghley House, Stamford 1981, p. 58, n. 140.