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Lot Essay
A Rare Yongzheng 'Eel Skin'-glazed Lobed Tripod
Rosemary Scott
Independent scholar
Visiting ceramics research fellow, Palace Museum, Beijing
This exceptional eel skin-glazed vessel belongs to a group of lobed ceramic tripods, which are variously described as narcissus bowls, bulb bowls, plant-pot stands, and brush-washers. It is probable that Imperial Qing dynasty ceramic vessels, such as this, were used for a range of purposes, depending on the requirements of their imperial owner at the time. Larger metal vessels are found in a similar form, although these are not usually lobed and some have more elaborate feet. These can be seen in 18th century court paintings, where they are shown being used as burners or low braziers.
An anonymous court painting in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, depicts the Yongzheng Emperor warming his feet on one of these metal tripod burners, whilst reading. This painting is entitled Reading by a Burner, is one of a series of Yinzhen’s [Yongzheng’s] Amusements (illustrated in Harmony and Integrity – The Yongzheng Emperor and His Times, Taipei, 2009, pp. 118-9, no. I-58). A similar large metal burner is depicted providing warmth for one of the Twelve Beauties at Leisure Painted for Prince Yinzhen, also preserved in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and dated to the late Kangxi reign, probably between 1709 and 1722. This painting, which shows a beautiful woman in winter, seated next to a brazier, wearing a sable-trimmed hat and admiring prunus blossom and frost-tipped bamboo, is illustrated in China – The Three Emperors 1662-1795, London, 2005, p. 258, no. 173, top row, centre. Metal burners of this type were popular in the Qing dynasty, and examples decorated with cloisonné enamel, especially those from the Qianlong reign, often had elaborate lids. A particularly fine pair of Qianlong cloisonné braziers with elaborate lids, from the C. Ruston and Audrey B. Love Collection, was sold by Christie’s New York, 20 October 2004, lot 354.
Among imperial ceramics, two versions of the shallow tripod form with lobed body appeared in the Yongzheng reign. One of these seems to have been made in close imitation of Southern Song dynasty crackle-glazed wares. One of these Ge-type tripods, which had previously been in the collection of Stephen Junkunc III, was sold by Christie’s New York, 19 March 2009, lot 702. A similar tripod with Guan- or Ge-type crackled-glaze, and bearing a Yongzheng mark, was loaned by the famous Swedish collector Carl Kempe to the Oriental Ceramic Society Exhibition of Ju and Kuan Wares – Imperial Wares of the Sung Dynasty, Related Wares and Derivatives of Later Date, London 1952, no. 110, illustrated in plate 6. Interestingly, on a similar example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, an attempt has been made at some time in the piece’s history to grind off the reign mark on the base of the vessel – probably in an attempt to pass it off as a Song original. This tripod is illustrated by W. B. Honey in The Ceramic Art of China and Other Countries of the Far East, London, 1954, pl. 43B. Another Yongzheng lobed tripod of the same size and shape as the Ge- and Guan-type vessels, but with an uncrackled light-blue glaze, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Qingdai Yuyao ciqi, juan 1, Beijing, 2005, pp. 436-7, no. 205. As it has a buff-coloured body, rather than the dark body of the Guan- and Ge-type pieces, it may have been intended to resemble Song Ru ware. This latter vessel and the crackled-glaze examples all have rather narrow everted mouth rims, cabriole-shaped legs, and neat (possibly spurious) spur marks on their bases.
Similar crackled-glaze tripods were also made for the court of the Qianlong Emperor, and a Qianlong-marked example with Ge-type glaze, from the J.M. Hu and Robert Chang collections was included in the Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, Christie's London, 1993, no. 62. A Qianlong example with a Ru-type glaze is in the collection of the Nanjing Museum and is illustrated in The Official Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 334.
The second version of this tripod shape to be made for the court in the 18th century is clearly based upon Jun-ware plant-pot stands of the type that is now believed to have been made in the late Yuan or early Ming dynasty. The late 14th-early 15th century Jun ware tripods with lobed bodies and petal-shaped rim flanges, were intended either as bulb bowls or as stands for similarly lobed plant-pots. Among these Jun wares both stands and plant-pots were made in a range of sizes, which were indicated on the base of the vessels by Chinese numerals from one to ten. Like the current Yongzheng eel skin-glazed vessel, the earlier Jun wares were often made in lotus form with six bracket-lobes creating the outline of petals on the flattened mouth-rim. A Jun example in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, which bears the numeral er (two) on its base, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 32 - Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 36, no. 31. (Fig. 1) The current Yongzheng vessel has also copied the shape of the feet of its Jun ware predecessors, and has three cloud-shaped feet – in contrast to the cabriole form on the other Qing version of this form, discussed above. The Jun vessel also has the marks of small spurs on its base, as does the Yongzheng eel skin-glazed tripod, although the latter has only seven spur marks, in contrast to the Jun vessel’s seventeen.
The adoption of this lobed tripod form with cloud feet for Imperial ceramics of the 18th century is a reflection of the Qing emperors’ fascination with antiques. All three of the great Qing emperors - Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong – were enthusiastic collectors of antiques, and commissioned ceramics to be made in archaistic style. It seems clear that original Jun ware vessels were used in the Qing palace gardens. A lobed Jun ware plant-pot (inscribed with the numeral qi , seven), preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, bears two inscriptions incised into its base. One reads Jianfu gong while the other reads Zhu shi jiashan yong (for use in the Bamboo and Stone Artificial Rockery). The Jianfu gong (Palace of Established Happiness), and was built on the orders of the Qianlong Emperor in 1742, in the north-western part of the Forbidden City. It was particularly noted for its gardens, which Qianlong had constructed as a place of relaxation and entertainment for members of the court. In the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing there is an album painted c. AD 1738 by the court artist Chen Mei (AD 1697-1745), which is comprised of twelve leaves depicting Ladies’ Seasonal Activities in the Twelve Months entitled Strolling in the Moonlight. The leaves of this album depict ladies of the court pursuing various leisure activities within the palaces in each of the twelve months of the year. One album leaf represents activities of the 9th month, in which ladies are depicted in the palace gardens. It is entitled Enjoying chrysanthemums on the ninth day of the ninth month and is illustrated in The Golden Exile - Pictorial Expressions of the School of Western Missionaries’ Artworks of the Qing Dynasty Court, Museu de Arte de Macau, 2002, no. 45/9. In the foreground of this album leaf a lobed Jun ware plant-pot is shown carefully displayed on a rockery. This plant-pot is very similar to that inscribed vessel still in the Palace Museum, mentioned above, and may be the same one.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Qing emperors commissioned ceramics in the forms of these much-prized antique Jun wares. A Qing dynasty stand in the same form as the current eel skin-glazed vessel can be seen in another of the paintings of Twelve Beauties at Leisure Painted for Prince Yinzhen, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, dated to the late Kangxi reign. This painting shows a Jun-type vessel, of similar form to the current eel-skin tripod, being used as a stand for a Jun-type plant-pot containing narcissus on the window ledge of the lady’s room (illustrated in China - The Three Emperors 1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2006, p. 259, no. 173, lower right). Several vessels of these forms with Jun-type glazes and Yongzheng marks have been published. One with a Yongzheng six-character mark is illustrated by J. Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pp. 155, no. 262. Another in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Qingdai danseyou ciqi, Taipei, 1981, no. 84, where it is described as a pot-stand. (Fig. 2) Another with a six-character Yongzheng mark, which was in the Qing Court collection, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 37 - Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 196-7, no. 178, where it is described as a washer. A turquoise-glazed example is illustrated in Shimmering Colours - Monochromes of the Yuan to Qing Periods - The Zhuyuetang Collection, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005, p. 178, no. 105.
Yongzheng examples of this form with crystalline glazes like that on the current vessel are very rare, and no other example of an eel skin-glazed, bracket-lobed, tripod appears to have been published, although a much simpler Yongzheng plant-pot and stand with eel-skin glaze in the collection of the Nanjing Museum is illustrated in The Official Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 207. However, glazes of this type were highly prized by the Yongzheng emperor, almost certainly because of their archaistic appearance, which was related to ancient bronzes. This group of glazes is sometimes called Changguan you or Imperial Factory glazes in Chinese, and indeed they are mentioned in Tang Ying's (1682-1756) famous Taocheng jishi bei ji (Commemorative stele on ceramic production) of AD 1735, where three types are noted - eel-skin yellow, snake-skin green, and spotted yellow. These are all opaque crystalline glazes, which belong to the tea-dust group. Their unique appearance is due to slight under firing of a glaze with significant iron and magnesium oxide content, which results in the development of fine pyroxene crystals during cooling. These give the glaze the attractive brown, greenish or yellowish micro-crystalline appearance, which was so prized at the Qing court. This type of glaze reached its apogee in the Yongzheng reign, as can be seen on the current elegant tripod.
This superb 'eel-skin'-glazed tripod vessel was formerly in the collection of Stephen Junkunc, III, one of the most renowned collectors in America of Chinese ceramics and works of art. His collection consisted of a wide breadth of works of the highest standards of quality. At its height, the Junkunc collection comprised over two-thousand examples of porcelain, jade, bronzes, Buddhist sculpture and paintings, and included two examples of the legendary Ru ware, of which only eighty-seven are known in the world.
Stephen Junkunc, III was born in Budapest, Hungary, and emigrated to the US as a young boy. His father, Stephen Junkunc, II was a tool-and-die maker who founded General Machinery & Manufacturing Company in 1918 on South Aberdeen Street in Chicago, focusing on the manufacture of knife-edge fuel nozzle heads. In 1933, the company moved to North Keeler Street, where it still exists today. With the outbreak of World War II, GMMCO endeavored to help in the war effort by manufacturing various aircraft parts, specializing in aircraft engine seals.
Stephen Junkunc, III began collecting in earnest in the 1940s, and his most ardent buying period was in the 1950s and 1960s. His collecting was always informed by diligent study—he kept vast libraries at both his home and in his office and read voraciously, whether quickly over a short lunch break or at a more leisurely pace into the small hours of the morning. When acquiring objects for his collection, he only dealt with the most renowned dealers of the mid-twentieth century, including Bluett & Sons, Sparks, Yamanaka & Co., Ltd., C. T. Loo & Cie, Tonying & Company and Hisazo Nagatani. The Chicago-based gallery of Yamanaka & Co., Ltd., which had opened in 1928, played a particularly strong role in Junkunc’s voracious passion for collecting. Nagatani (d. 1994), formerly the manager of Yamanaka in Chicago, was among the most influential advisors to Stephen Junkunc, III, supplying works to the collection for over thirty years.
Today, the legacy of Stephen Junkunc, III has been preserved through his generous donations to institutions throughout the United States and through bequests from his collection found in the Milwaukee Public Museum in Wisconsin and in the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami, Florida. His curatorial contribution to cultural patrimony is preserved in the countless masterpieces that are housed in private collections all over the world, including the present teadust-glazed vessel that Christie’s is honored to offer.
Rosemary Scott
Independent scholar
Visiting ceramics research fellow, Palace Museum, Beijing
This exceptional eel skin-glazed vessel belongs to a group of lobed ceramic tripods, which are variously described as narcissus bowls, bulb bowls, plant-pot stands, and brush-washers. It is probable that Imperial Qing dynasty ceramic vessels, such as this, were used for a range of purposes, depending on the requirements of their imperial owner at the time. Larger metal vessels are found in a similar form, although these are not usually lobed and some have more elaborate feet. These can be seen in 18th century court paintings, where they are shown being used as burners or low braziers.
An anonymous court painting in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, depicts the Yongzheng Emperor warming his feet on one of these metal tripod burners, whilst reading. This painting is entitled Reading by a Burner, is one of a series of Yinzhen’s [Yongzheng’s] Amusements (illustrated in Harmony and Integrity – The Yongzheng Emperor and His Times, Taipei, 2009, pp. 118-9, no. I-58). A similar large metal burner is depicted providing warmth for one of the Twelve Beauties at Leisure Painted for Prince Yinzhen, also preserved in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, and dated to the late Kangxi reign, probably between 1709 and 1722. This painting, which shows a beautiful woman in winter, seated next to a brazier, wearing a sable-trimmed hat and admiring prunus blossom and frost-tipped bamboo, is illustrated in China – The Three Emperors 1662-1795, London, 2005, p. 258, no. 173, top row, centre. Metal burners of this type were popular in the Qing dynasty, and examples decorated with cloisonné enamel, especially those from the Qianlong reign, often had elaborate lids. A particularly fine pair of Qianlong cloisonné braziers with elaborate lids, from the C. Ruston and Audrey B. Love Collection, was sold by Christie’s New York, 20 October 2004, lot 354.
Among imperial ceramics, two versions of the shallow tripod form with lobed body appeared in the Yongzheng reign. One of these seems to have been made in close imitation of Southern Song dynasty crackle-glazed wares. One of these Ge-type tripods, which had previously been in the collection of Stephen Junkunc III, was sold by Christie’s New York, 19 March 2009, lot 702. A similar tripod with Guan- or Ge-type crackled-glaze, and bearing a Yongzheng mark, was loaned by the famous Swedish collector Carl Kempe to the Oriental Ceramic Society Exhibition of Ju and Kuan Wares – Imperial Wares of the Sung Dynasty, Related Wares and Derivatives of Later Date, London 1952, no. 110, illustrated in plate 6. Interestingly, on a similar example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, an attempt has been made at some time in the piece’s history to grind off the reign mark on the base of the vessel – probably in an attempt to pass it off as a Song original. This tripod is illustrated by W. B. Honey in The Ceramic Art of China and Other Countries of the Far East, London, 1954, pl. 43B. Another Yongzheng lobed tripod of the same size and shape as the Ge- and Guan-type vessels, but with an uncrackled light-blue glaze, is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Qingdai Yuyao ciqi, juan 1, Beijing, 2005, pp. 436-7, no. 205. As it has a buff-coloured body, rather than the dark body of the Guan- and Ge-type pieces, it may have been intended to resemble Song Ru ware. This latter vessel and the crackled-glaze examples all have rather narrow everted mouth rims, cabriole-shaped legs, and neat (possibly spurious) spur marks on their bases.
Similar crackled-glaze tripods were also made for the court of the Qianlong Emperor, and a Qianlong-marked example with Ge-type glaze, from the J.M. Hu and Robert Chang collections was included in the Exhibition of Important Chinese Ceramics from the Robert Chang Collection, Christie's London, 1993, no. 62. A Qianlong example with a Ru-type glaze is in the collection of the Nanjing Museum and is illustrated in The Official Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 334.
The second version of this tripod shape to be made for the court in the 18th century is clearly based upon Jun-ware plant-pot stands of the type that is now believed to have been made in the late Yuan or early Ming dynasty. The late 14th-early 15th century Jun ware tripods with lobed bodies and petal-shaped rim flanges, were intended either as bulb bowls or as stands for similarly lobed plant-pots. Among these Jun wares both stands and plant-pots were made in a range of sizes, which were indicated on the base of the vessels by Chinese numerals from one to ten. Like the current Yongzheng eel skin-glazed vessel, the earlier Jun wares were often made in lotus form with six bracket-lobes creating the outline of petals on the flattened mouth-rim. A Jun example in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, which bears the numeral er (two) on its base, is illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 32 - Porcelain of the Song Dynasty (I), Hong Kong, 1996, p. 36, no. 31. (Fig. 1) The current Yongzheng vessel has also copied the shape of the feet of its Jun ware predecessors, and has three cloud-shaped feet – in contrast to the cabriole form on the other Qing version of this form, discussed above. The Jun vessel also has the marks of small spurs on its base, as does the Yongzheng eel skin-glazed tripod, although the latter has only seven spur marks, in contrast to the Jun vessel’s seventeen.
The adoption of this lobed tripod form with cloud feet for Imperial ceramics of the 18th century is a reflection of the Qing emperors’ fascination with antiques. All three of the great Qing emperors - Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong – were enthusiastic collectors of antiques, and commissioned ceramics to be made in archaistic style. It seems clear that original Jun ware vessels were used in the Qing palace gardens. A lobed Jun ware plant-pot (inscribed with the numeral qi , seven), preserved in the Palace Museum, Beijing, bears two inscriptions incised into its base. One reads Jianfu gong while the other reads Zhu shi jiashan yong (for use in the Bamboo and Stone Artificial Rockery). The Jianfu gong (Palace of Established Happiness), and was built on the orders of the Qianlong Emperor in 1742, in the north-western part of the Forbidden City. It was particularly noted for its gardens, which Qianlong had constructed as a place of relaxation and entertainment for members of the court. In the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing there is an album painted c. AD 1738 by the court artist Chen Mei (AD 1697-1745), which is comprised of twelve leaves depicting Ladies’ Seasonal Activities in the Twelve Months entitled Strolling in the Moonlight. The leaves of this album depict ladies of the court pursuing various leisure activities within the palaces in each of the twelve months of the year. One album leaf represents activities of the 9th month, in which ladies are depicted in the palace gardens. It is entitled Enjoying chrysanthemums on the ninth day of the ninth month and is illustrated in The Golden Exile - Pictorial Expressions of the School of Western Missionaries’ Artworks of the Qing Dynasty Court, Museu de Arte de Macau, 2002, no. 45/9. In the foreground of this album leaf a lobed Jun ware plant-pot is shown carefully displayed on a rockery. This plant-pot is very similar to that inscribed vessel still in the Palace Museum, mentioned above, and may be the same one.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Qing emperors commissioned ceramics in the forms of these much-prized antique Jun wares. A Qing dynasty stand in the same form as the current eel skin-glazed vessel can be seen in another of the paintings of Twelve Beauties at Leisure Painted for Prince Yinzhen, in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, dated to the late Kangxi reign. This painting shows a Jun-type vessel, of similar form to the current eel-skin tripod, being used as a stand for a Jun-type plant-pot containing narcissus on the window ledge of the lady’s room (illustrated in China - The Three Emperors 1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2006, p. 259, no. 173, lower right). Several vessels of these forms with Jun-type glazes and Yongzheng marks have been published. One with a Yongzheng six-character mark is illustrated by J. Ayers in Chinese Ceramics in the Baur Collection, vol. 2, Geneva, 1999, pp. 155, no. 262. Another in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, is illustrated in Qingdai danseyou ciqi, Taipei, 1981, no. 84, where it is described as a pot-stand. (Fig. 2) Another with a six-character Yongzheng mark, which was in the Qing Court collection, is in the Palace Museum, Beijing, and illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum - 37 - Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 196-7, no. 178, where it is described as a washer. A turquoise-glazed example is illustrated in Shimmering Colours - Monochromes of the Yuan to Qing Periods - The Zhuyuetang Collection, Art Museum, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005, p. 178, no. 105.
Yongzheng examples of this form with crystalline glazes like that on the current vessel are very rare, and no other example of an eel skin-glazed, bracket-lobed, tripod appears to have been published, although a much simpler Yongzheng plant-pot and stand with eel-skin glaze in the collection of the Nanjing Museum is illustrated in The Official Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 207. However, glazes of this type were highly prized by the Yongzheng emperor, almost certainly because of their archaistic appearance, which was related to ancient bronzes. This group of glazes is sometimes called Changguan you or Imperial Factory glazes in Chinese, and indeed they are mentioned in Tang Ying's (1682-1756) famous Taocheng jishi bei ji (Commemorative stele on ceramic production) of AD 1735, where three types are noted - eel-skin yellow, snake-skin green, and spotted yellow. These are all opaque crystalline glazes, which belong to the tea-dust group. Their unique appearance is due to slight under firing of a glaze with significant iron and magnesium oxide content, which results in the development of fine pyroxene crystals during cooling. These give the glaze the attractive brown, greenish or yellowish micro-crystalline appearance, which was so prized at the Qing court. This type of glaze reached its apogee in the Yongzheng reign, as can be seen on the current elegant tripod.
This superb 'eel-skin'-glazed tripod vessel was formerly in the collection of Stephen Junkunc, III, one of the most renowned collectors in America of Chinese ceramics and works of art. His collection consisted of a wide breadth of works of the highest standards of quality. At its height, the Junkunc collection comprised over two-thousand examples of porcelain, jade, bronzes, Buddhist sculpture and paintings, and included two examples of the legendary Ru ware, of which only eighty-seven are known in the world.
Stephen Junkunc, III was born in Budapest, Hungary, and emigrated to the US as a young boy. His father, Stephen Junkunc, II was a tool-and-die maker who founded General Machinery & Manufacturing Company in 1918 on South Aberdeen Street in Chicago, focusing on the manufacture of knife-edge fuel nozzle heads. In 1933, the company moved to North Keeler Street, where it still exists today. With the outbreak of World War II, GMMCO endeavored to help in the war effort by manufacturing various aircraft parts, specializing in aircraft engine seals.
Stephen Junkunc, III began collecting in earnest in the 1940s, and his most ardent buying period was in the 1950s and 1960s. His collecting was always informed by diligent study—he kept vast libraries at both his home and in his office and read voraciously, whether quickly over a short lunch break or at a more leisurely pace into the small hours of the morning. When acquiring objects for his collection, he only dealt with the most renowned dealers of the mid-twentieth century, including Bluett & Sons, Sparks, Yamanaka & Co., Ltd., C. T. Loo & Cie, Tonying & Company and Hisazo Nagatani. The Chicago-based gallery of Yamanaka & Co., Ltd., which had opened in 1928, played a particularly strong role in Junkunc’s voracious passion for collecting. Nagatani (d. 1994), formerly the manager of Yamanaka in Chicago, was among the most influential advisors to Stephen Junkunc, III, supplying works to the collection for over thirty years.
Today, the legacy of Stephen Junkunc, III has been preserved through his generous donations to institutions throughout the United States and through bequests from his collection found in the Milwaukee Public Museum in Wisconsin and in the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami, Florida. His curatorial contribution to cultural patrimony is preserved in the countless masterpieces that are housed in private collections all over the world, including the present teadust-glazed vessel that Christie’s is honored to offer.