Limited Masterworks Wall Plate Auspicious Dragon

The five-clawed long dragon determines the timing of the seasons and the harvest as well as symbolising wealth and, above all, happiness, kindness and intelligence. It is one of Asia's oldest mythical creatures and plays a key role in the continent's culture. In 2022, MEISSEN artists Zhuoyu Hou rendered the iconic MEISSEN Ming Dragon as an amicable beast of fable. Here, it fuses far eastern symbolism with heritage-rich craftsmanship from MEISSEN, Zhuoyu Hou's adopted cultural home, on two wall dishes included in our Limited-Edition series for 2024 - the year of the dragon.

"Auspicious dragon in Waves"
The artist got the idea for her "Auspicious dragon in Wave" design from drawings of waves produced early in the 20th century by the Japanese painter Mori Yuan. She created the dragon with the aid of a special glazing and gilding technique that gives rise to contrasting shiny and matt areas and imparts an eminently tactile quality to the dragon's scales. Hous waves are decorated in underglaze painting in the famous cobalt blue, surely the Porcelain manufactory's most familiar underglaze colour. The hypnotic, full-bodied blue lines of the wave stand out powerfully against the dragon's matt-gold body, an effect that exerts an irresistible pull on the beholder and conjures up all sorts of images in their mind. Torrents of water can be said to catapult Zhuoyu Hou's auspicious dragon from the past in far-off Asia to the future in Meissen, the birthplace of European porcelain.