.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The unusual form of this vase appears to owe a considerable amount to a bronze original, probably a holy water flask. The styling of the vase is particularly distinctive with the non-functional double ribs around the neck and the cup-shaped rim. The most likely explanation for these stylistic details is that they revives what would have been a metal flange, to assist a user in holding it when pouring water from the bottle. Holy water bottles are recorded in porcelain from the Yongle period onwards; a fragmentary flask, described as a holy water jar and measuring 27 cm. high, was excavated from the Yongle-period strata at Zhushan, cf. Ceramic Finds from Jingdezhen Kilns, Fung Ping Shan Museum, Hong Kong, 1992, fig. 201. The shape continued through the Ming dynasty, with rare blue and white examples recorded from the Xuande and Wanli periods; a turquoise-ground Fahua vase of similar shape is illustrated by R.L. Hobson, The Wares of the Ming Dynasty, front cover. A comparable example dated Xuande with a double-waisted knopped neck, broadly tapering body and splayed foot, painted around the body with flower-sprays and petal bands, is illustrated in Zhongguo Taoci Quanji, The Great Treasury of Chinese Ceramics, vol. 19, Jingdezhen Minjian Qinghua Ciqi, Jingdezhen Folk Blue and White Porcelain, 1983, fig. 12.
The form seems to have been revived during the Yongzheng period, probably as part of the archaising movement, which drew on ceramics and bronzes readily available in Beijing as design models for potters responding to the taste for the antique at the Imperial court. Compare a Yongzheng-marked vase of closely related shape, with a crackled glaze imitating Guan ware, illustrated by J. Ayers in The Baur Collection, vol. III, no. A348, which the author suggests may be based on a Song or Ming bronze original.
The dramatic glaze on this vase seeks to re-create the famous classical Jun wares of the Song period. The splashes and streaks characteristic of this glaze are described as yao bian, or 'transmutation glaze', and their production has been the subject of much research. See Rose Kerr, 'Jun Wares and their Qing dynasty Imitation at Jingdezhen', in Rosemary Scott (ed.) The Porcelains of Jingdezhen, Colloquies on Art & Archaeology in Asia No. 16, Percival David Foundation, London, 1993, p. 151-164; and Nigel Wood, 'The Evolution of the Chinese Copper Red' in Rosemary Scott (ed.) Chinese Copper Red Wares, Percival David Foundation, London, 1992, pp. 29-30, for discussion on this topic. Rose Kerr notes that Lan Pu in the Jingdezhen tao lu, which although not published until AD 1815 was largely written in the latter years of the Qianlong reign, expresses the view that the 18th century wares made at Jingdezhen are superior to the wares of the Song and Yuan dynasties. He writes: 'Jun ware red pieces that the ancients made were composed of rough, coarse-grained clay tinged with yellow, and though the glaze colour is lively they are not fine pieces. today, Jingdezhen selects clean, fine, white clay to mould the body, and then applies red glaze. in this way the red colour has a much richer appearance.'
Compare the impressed four-character mark with that on a flambe-glazed amphora in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in Imperial Kiln Porcelain of Qing Dynasty: Gems of Collections in Nanjing Museum, Shanghai, 1997, no. 16
A vase of similar shape and colour to the currrent example, from the Robert Chang Collection, and formerly in the Winkworth Collection, was sold in our Hong Kong Rooms 2 November 1999, lot 512.
The form seems to have been revived during the Yongzheng period, probably as part of the archaising movement, which drew on ceramics and bronzes readily available in Beijing as design models for potters responding to the taste for the antique at the Imperial court. Compare a Yongzheng-marked vase of closely related shape, with a crackled glaze imitating Guan ware, illustrated by J. Ayers in The Baur Collection, vol. III, no. A348, which the author suggests may be based on a Song or Ming bronze original.
The dramatic glaze on this vase seeks to re-create the famous classical Jun wares of the Song period. The splashes and streaks characteristic of this glaze are described as yao bian, or 'transmutation glaze', and their production has been the subject of much research. See Rose Kerr, 'Jun Wares and their Qing dynasty Imitation at Jingdezhen', in Rosemary Scott (ed.) The Porcelains of Jingdezhen, Colloquies on Art & Archaeology in Asia No. 16, Percival David Foundation, London, 1993, p. 151-164; and Nigel Wood, 'The Evolution of the Chinese Copper Red' in Rosemary Scott (ed.) Chinese Copper Red Wares, Percival David Foundation, London, 1992, pp. 29-30, for discussion on this topic. Rose Kerr notes that Lan Pu in the Jingdezhen tao lu, which although not published until AD 1815 was largely written in the latter years of the Qianlong reign, expresses the view that the 18th century wares made at Jingdezhen are superior to the wares of the Song and Yuan dynasties. He writes: 'Jun ware red pieces that the ancients made were composed of rough, coarse-grained clay tinged with yellow, and though the glaze colour is lively they are not fine pieces. today, Jingdezhen selects clean, fine, white clay to mould the body, and then applies red glaze. in this way the red colour has a much richer appearance.'
Compare the impressed four-character mark with that on a flambe-glazed amphora in the Nanjing Museum, illustrated in Imperial Kiln Porcelain of Qing Dynasty: Gems of Collections in Nanjing Museum, Shanghai, 1997, no. 16
A vase of similar shape and colour to the currrent example, from the Robert Chang Collection, and formerly in the Winkworth Collection, was sold in our Hong Kong Rooms 2 November 1999, lot 512.