figure (art)

Dragon in painted ceramic: yellow, blue and white, glazed. Standing on four widespread feet, each with four claws and a tuft (three of the claws are broken, two are in a separate bag). The mouth is gaping wide with a forked tongue, staring eyes and two horns; the curved neck has a crest of scales front and back, a thin, sinuous body with hatched and semi-circular ‘scales’, and an inward-curving tail, also crested. The stumpy legs are each decorated with a flower motif: six petals and dots round a circle.

Collection Information

These objects are only a part of our collections, of which there are more than 350,000 objects. This information comes from our collections database. Some of this is incomplete and there may be errors. This part of the website is also still under construction, so there may be some fields repeated or incorrectly formatted information.

The database sometimes uses language taken from historical documents to help research, which may now appear outdated and even offensive. The database also includes information on objects that are considered secret or sacred by some communities.

If you have any further information about objects in our collections or can suggest corrections to our information, please contact us: enquiry@horniman.ac.uk