A LARGE MOLDED UNDERGLAZE-BLUE, COPPER-RED AND CELADON-DECORATED 'PHOENIX TAIL' VASE
A LARGE MOLDED UNDERGLAZE-BLUE, COPPER-RED AND CELADON-DECORATED 'PHOENIX TAIL' VASE
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THE ROBERT B. AND BEATRICE C. MAYER FAMILY COLLECTION
A LARGE MOLDED UNDERGLAZE-BLUE, COPPER-RED AND CELADON-DECORATED 'PHOENIX TAIL' VASE

KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)

Details
A LARGE MOLDED UNDERGLAZE-BLUE, COPPER-RED AND CELADON-DECORATED 'PHOENIX TAIL' VASE
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722)
The body is decorated with birds in flight above a continuous scene of a pheasant standing on a tall celadon-glazed rock amidst flowering tree peony, magnolia and crabapple, all below a narrow band of lotus, chrysanthemum and rose sprays on the shoulder and a crabapple tree and another celadon-glazed rock on the trumpet-shaped neck. The base is inscribed with an apocryphal Chenghua mark.
27 in. (69.5 cm.) high
Provenance
Ralph M. Chait Galleries, New York, 10 March 1965.
Exhibited
Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum, 1933.
On loan: Minneapolis, Minnesota, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, March 1984-January 1995.

Lot Essay

The combination of celadon green with underglaze cobalt blue and underglaze copper red is relatively rare, no doubt because it was so difficult to fire successfully. With the coming of the Kangxi reign came renewed imperial interest in porcelain and a demand for high quality and variety. In the early years of the reign the potters revived the combination of underglaze blue and underglaze copper red on single pieces, and with the re-establishment of the imperial kiln complex court demand for innovation resulted in molded and carved surface decoration and the use of areas of celadon green being added to this already challenging palette.

The favored decorative theme in this technique is landscape with trees, mountains, water and molded and carved celadon-green rocks. Compare a Kangxi period trumpet-mouthed vase in the Seikado Bunko, Tokyo, illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu, Tokyo, 1983, vol. 15, Qing, p. 146, no. 138. Compare, also, a Kangxi period vase of similar shape and large size, sold at Christie’s New York, 26 March 2003, lot 260.

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