BLANC-DE-CHINE AND WHITE-GLAZED CERAMICS
A BLANC-DE-CHINE WINE POT AND COVER

Details
A BLANC-DE-CHINE WINE POT AND COVER
17TH CENTURY

The cylindrical body made in the form of a ribbon-tied scroll, with a diagonally set handle formed by the body of a slender chilong crawling from the flat rim towards the base, while on the opposite side another chilong clings vertically to the side as it grasps the rim with one foot, its outstretched neck and head forming the spout, the flat cover pierced with a vent hole through the coiled dragon finial, covered in a glaze of ivory tone (cracks); together with a small blanc-de-chine jue libation cup, 17th/18th century, the shaped, oval cup molded at one end with a bat, its wings enveloping the sides above a band of waves, with a spout opposite, a pair of posts rising from the rim and a C-scroll handle set to one side, raised on three tall supports formed by curved streams of vapor issuing from the mouths of dragons, covered overall in a glaze of ivory tone (some restoration)
6½ and 4 5/8in. (16.5 and 11.7cm.) high (2)
Provenance
Stephen Junkunc, III

Lot Essay

A wine pot of this type with an arched dragon finial is illustrated by Donnelly, Blanc de Chine, New York, 1967, pl. 60 C

Ewers of this design with the same knop are illustrated by W.B. Honey, Guide to Later Chinese Porcelain, London, 1927, pl. 109f, in the Victoria and Albert Museum; by Judith and Arthur Hart Burling, Chinese Art, New York, 1953, p. 192 (bottom), in the City Art Museum of St. Louis; by Bahr, Old Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art in China, pl. XVIII; and by S. W. Bushell, Oriental Ceramic Art, New York, 1980 (republished from a 1896 edition), pl. XIII (right), in the Walters Collection

A ewer of this form, with simple knop, was found by Captain Michael Hatcher in 1983 in the cargo of a shipwreck in the South China Seas in which two pieces were dated by inscription to 1643, illustrated by Ayers, "Blanc de Chine, Some Reflections", T.O.C.S., vol. 51, 1986-1987, pl. 7 (bottom right), together with the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, op. cit. The Hatcher example was sold in our Amsterdam rooms, March 14, 1984, lot 303