Lrg Rare Chinese Qing Famille-Noire "Dragon" Seal

Lrg Rare Chinese Qing Famille-Noire "Dragon" Seal
Large rare Chinese porcelain famille noire "dragon" seal, late Qing dynasty. Of square form with a pair addorsed dragon head finials. The top of the seal with a dragon in relief coiling around a flaming pearl amidst clouds and flames. The four sides with striding dragons. The seal face inscribed with eight characters reading "Kangxi huangdi yulan zhibao (seal for the appreciation of the Kangxi emperor)."

Provenance: Collection of George H. Taber (1859-1940); Collection of Graham and Margaret Groves, Coral Gables, FL (by repute); Private Collection; Sotheby's New York, "Important Chinese Art, " September 12, 2018, Lot 351; Private California Collection.

Exhibition: The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (on loan), 1935-1940.

Literature:
Berthold Laufer, Copy of a note, "Three Imperial Porcelain Seals, " Field Museum of Natural History, September 25, 1933.
"A Rare Collection of Chinese Art: Porcelains, Jades and Horn Carvings Shown in the Exquisite Examples in the George H. Taber Loan to the Carnegie Institute, " Carnegie Magazine, vol. 10 (March 1937), 293. Figs. IV, V.
Chao Ming Chen, "Symbolism in Chinese Porcelain Decoration, " The Bulletin of the American Ceramic Society, vol. 20, no. 6 (June 1941), 197.

Lot Essay:
The seal has been well-documented throughout the early 20th century. The present seal appears to be the mate to an identical example sold at Freeman's, Philadelphia, 12th March 2016, lot 146. That seal was incised with the mark "xiao yi huang hou yu shang zhi bao" referring to the imperial consort, Lady Tunggiya, who was posthumously honored by the Kangxi emperor as Empress Xiao Yi Ren in 1689. Both that seal and the present seal are referenced as a pair in a short description written in 1933 by Berthold Laufer, then serving as the curator of Chinese art at the Field Museum, Chicago and again in an article by Chen Ming Chen in 1941. In his 1933 description, Laufer thanks Chen for the opportunity to view the seals, implying that the pair was with Chen in 1933. However by 1935, the pair of seals are recorded as belonging to the well-known collector and patron of the arts, George Hathaway Taber (1859-1940) and on loan to the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The present seal and seal face are illustrated in an article in the Carnegie Magazine, vol. 10, March 1937. The seal also appears as a hand drawing in "Notes on the Taber Collection of Oriental Art by A. Avinoff after Consultation with Mr. C.T. Loo, Chinese Dealer in the Art Objects, Paris and New York, " Carnegie Museum of Art archives, done while the seals were on loan sometime between 1935-40, with a comment that the pair was on display in "Case II" and it was considered to have been made later than the Kangxi period.
Height: 5 3/4 in x width: 9 1/2 in x depth: 7 1/2 in.
Condition: There are a couple of minor restorations to the applied dragon heads with a few small losses. The surface with wear throughout consistent with age.