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Lot Essay
Water pots of this form are known as taibai zun, after the Tang dynasty poet Li Bai, who is often depicted leaning against a large wine jar of similar form. They are also known as jizhao zun because their shape resembles chicken coops that are woven with small openings at the top through which the chicks are fed.
The present water pot is covered with a pale bluish glaze rather than a creamy-white glaze as typically seen on water pots of this type. For Kangxi-marked white-glazed water pots, compare one from the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 122, no. 111. Another is illustrated by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, London, 1985, p. 167, pl. 139, where the glaze is described as 'moon-white' and the medallions are of ‘a dragon biting another creature, and a bat’. Two further examples include one in the Chinese University of Hong Kong Museum, illustrated in their 1995 exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Cat., no. 3; and one in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, illustrated in The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, 1985, pl. 28. Another was sold at Christie’s New York, Sacred and Imperial: The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection Part I, 24 September 2020, lot 814.
The present water pot is covered with a pale bluish glaze rather than a creamy-white glaze as typically seen on water pots of this type. For Kangxi-marked white-glazed water pots, compare one from the Qing Court Collection, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, p. 122, no. 111. Another is illustrated by J. Ayers, Chinese Ceramics: The Koger Collection, London, 1985, p. 167, pl. 139, where the glaze is described as 'moon-white' and the medallions are of ‘a dragon biting another creature, and a bat’. Two further examples include one in the Chinese University of Hong Kong Museum, illustrated in their 1995 exhibition Qing Imperial Porcelain of the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong Reigns, Cat., no. 3; and one in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, illustrated in The Wonders of the Potter's Palette, 1985, pl. 28. Another was sold at Christie’s New York, Sacred and Imperial: The James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection Part I, 24 September 2020, lot 814.