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Lot Essay
A Rare Xuande Holy Water Bottle
Rosemary Scott, Independent Scholar
The current Xuande elegantly quadrilobed, underglaze blue decorated holy water bottle is extremely rare. This type of bottle or flask, which almost certainly developed from a metal proto-type, is often referred to as a 'pure water' or 'holy water' bottle, although it is more properly called a kamandalu, which is used in a Buddhist context to contain holy water, called amrta - although it is sometimes referred to in English as nectar or ambrosia. The vessel is particularly associated with the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Guanyin). This bottle form relates to the kendi and the kundika, having the distinctive flange on the neck, but is differentiated from the kendi and kundika by having no spout on the shoulder. The bottle most closely accords with kundika such as the Ding ware examples excavated from the Jingzhi Temple pagoda (dated AD 977) and the Jingzhongyuan Temple pagoda (dated AD 995) in Dingzhou, Hebei province (see Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Treasures from the Underground Palaces - Excavated from Northern Song Pagodas, Dingzhou, Hebei Province, China, Tokyo, 1997, nos. 57-58 and 87). The kundika with shoulder spout is also often referred to as a pure or holy water flask or sprinkler, and, like the current vessel, is associated with Buddhism. The flask has a slightly wider mouth than that seen on the kundika, and the flange is positioned lower on the neck. In sculpted or painted images of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara it is sometimes difficult to see if it is the flask with no shoulder spout, or the kundika, with shoulder spout, that is held in the right hand of the Bodhisattva. What is noticeable, however, is that in the majority of depictions, from the Tang dynasty onwards, the Bodhisattva holds the vessel by the neck, using the flange to suspend it between two fingers. Such a bottle can be seen held between the fingers of a Tang dynasty sandstone eleven-headed Avalokitesvara from the Baoqing Temple, Xi'an, Shaanxi province, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, dated to c. 703, (illustrated in China - Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004, p. 301, no. 193). An example of this type of bottle can also be seen in the right hand of Avalokitesvara in a painting dated AD 910 from Cave 12 at Dunhuang (illustrated by R. Whitfield and S. Farrer in Caves of the Thousand Buddhas - Chinese Art from the Silk Route, British Museum, London, 1990, p. 41, no. 12). A similar flanged bottle is held in the right hand of a beautiful, Yongle marked, gilt bronze seated figure of Avalokitesvara in the Rietberg Museum (illustrated in On the Path to Enlightenment - The Berti Aschmann Foundation of Tibetan Art at the Museum Rietberg Zurich, Zurich, 1995, pp. 98-9, no. 52). Unusually this latter figure holds the flask upside-down because the right hand is in the varada mudra, (gift bestowing hand gesture), however the flange on the neck of the bottle can clearly be seen.
According to the late Professor Wang Qingzheng, in discussing a Qianlong version of this form with overglaze iron-red decoration, this type of Qing dynasty flask was known in China as a zang cao ping, Tibetan herb bottle, or gan lu ping, sweet dew bottle (see Wang Qingzheng (ed.) in Dictionary of Chinese Ceramics, Sun Tree Publishing, Singapore, 2002, p. 47, lower right). In the Qianlong reign such vessels were specially commissioned imperial gifts presented to Tibetan monks, and according to the Yinliu zhai shuo ci (Description of porcelain from the Studio of Drinking Steams), they were not made after the Qianlong reign because no further Tibetan monks came to court. Professor Wang notes that in the Qing period such bottles were placed in front of Buddhist shrines to hold herbs. It is likely that Ming dynasty flasks such as the current example were used in the same way, and it is very possible that this flask was made as an imperial gift for one of the Tibetan hierarchs who came to the Chinese court at the invitation of the emperor during the Xuande reign. One such important visitor was Śākya Yeshe, who was invited to Beijing in 1426 by the Xuande Emperor in order to conduct post-funerary services for both his father the Hongxi Emperor and his grandfather the Yongle Emperor. Śākya Yeshe arrived in Beijing in 1429, and duly performed the requisite rituals. In the same year, the Xuande Emperor conferred on him the title of Daci Fawang (大慈法王Dharma Lord of Great Compassion). Śākya Yeshe died in Beijing in 1435.
While a number of extant porcelain flasks of this shape are known from the Qianlong reign, decorated in overglaze iron-red enamel or underglaze-blue and overglaze enamels in doucai style, early 15th century examples are extremely rare, especially those decorated in underglaze blue. However, blue and white porcelain vessels with flanges on their necks were being made at Jingdezhen as early as the Yuan dynasty. The neck of such a bottle was excavated from the Yuan stratum at Luomaqiao, Jingdezhen, and included in the exhibition, Ceramic Finds from Jingdezhen Kilns, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, 1992, no. 150, while two blue and white flasks on stands, preserved in the Qingyang City Cultural Bureau, Anhui province, are illustrated by Zhu Yuping, Yuandai qinghua ci, Wenhui chubanshe, Shanghai, 2000, p. 142, no. 6-19. A Yuan dynasty flask with flanged neck and pale bluish glaze in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan - Taoci juan, Taipei, 1993, p. 355, no. 623, where its use in Tibetan Buddhism is noted (fig.1). A white glazed vessel of this form was also excavated from the Yuan dynasty stratum at the Dehua kilns in Fujian province (illustrated in Dehua Wares, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, 1990, p. 109, no. 94). A Yongle bottle of this form with a celadon glaze imitating Longquan ware was excavated from the site of the imperial kilns at Zhushan, Jingdezhen in 1982 (illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, pp. 302-3, no. 121). While the Yuan dynasty vessels do not flare out at the foot, perhaps because they were intended to be displayed on stands like those of the Anhui vessels, both the excavated Yongle bottle and the current bottle have widely flaring feet, which give them greater stability. The early Ming vessels are of more slender proportions than their Yuan dynasty counterparts. A minyao bottle of this type with underglaze blue decoration, with broken neck, has also been excavated from a tomb at Jingdezhen dated to the Xuande-Zhengtong period (illustrated in Zhongguo taoci chuanji 19 Jingdezhen minjian qinghua ciqi, Shanghai, 1983, no. 12). A blue and white holy water bottle of very similar form and decoration to the current vessel is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, where it is dated to the Chenghua reign (see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 35, Blue and White with Underglaze Red (II), Hong Kong, 2000, no. 1 (fig.2).
A rare blue and white Kangxi porcelain bottle of this type, but with reduced flange, is preserved in the Nanjing Museum (illustrated in Qing Imperial Porcelain, Nanjing Museum and Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, no. 17). Flasks of this form appear to have been made in greater numbers during the Qianlong reign, and several decorated in overglaze iron-red have been preserved. One such flask is preserved in the Nanjing Museum (illustrated by Nanjing Museum in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 225), and another is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated in Emperor Ch'ien-lung's Grand Cultural Enterprise, National Palace Museum, 2002, p. 161, no. IV-32), while a flask of similar form but with flared mouth and more rounded flange, decorated in underglaze blue and overglaze enamels in doucai style, is in the Nanjing Museum (illustrated in Qing Imperial Porcelain, op. cit., no. 103). The Qianlong emperor's fondness for such flasks may be gauged from the fact that an iron-red decorated bottle of this type appears on a table along with Song and early Ming ceramics, and some ancient bronze vessels in a portrait of the emperor by Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining) and Ding Guanpeng (illustrated in The Qianlong Emperor - Treasures from the Forbidden City, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2002, p. 109, no. 57) (fig.3).
Imperial reverence for blue and white holy water bottles of this type in the Qing dynasty, is also demonstrated by the fact that an underglaze blue vessel of this same form appears on an imperial scroll in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, entitled Guwan tu (Scroll of Antiques), depicting items from the imperial collection dated to the Yongzheng reign AD 1729 (sections of the scroll, but not this section, are illustrated in China - The Three Emperors 1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, pp. 254-255, no. 169). Even more significantly, there are two references to Xuande blue and white holy water bottles in the Qinggong Ciqi Dang Qing Palace Porcelain Archives. The first dates to the third year of the Qianlong reign (1738) and notes:
‘On the 30th day, Storekeeper Liu Shanjiu, Seventh-rank Steward Samuha, and Supervisor Bai Shixiu reported to the Chief Steward. Upon opening the package, they presented one Xuande ganlu vase [holy water bottle]. An imperial decree was issued: “Have a stand fitted for it. By Imperial Order”.’
The second mention in the archives dates from the 30th year of the Qianlong reign (1765) and notes:
‘On the 13th day of the 8th month, the eunuch Hu Shijie delivered one Xuande ganlu vase with underglaze blue decoration on a white ground (together with its zitan wood stand) … An imperial decree was issued: “Let the Imperial Workshops take it to the capital and place it among the miscellaneous objects for use. By Imperial Order”.’
Rosemary Scott, Independent Scholar
The current Xuande elegantly quadrilobed, underglaze blue decorated holy water bottle is extremely rare. This type of bottle or flask, which almost certainly developed from a metal proto-type, is often referred to as a 'pure water' or 'holy water' bottle, although it is more properly called a kamandalu, which is used in a Buddhist context to contain holy water, called amrta - although it is sometimes referred to in English as nectar or ambrosia. The vessel is particularly associated with the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Guanyin). This bottle form relates to the kendi and the kundika, having the distinctive flange on the neck, but is differentiated from the kendi and kundika by having no spout on the shoulder. The bottle most closely accords with kundika such as the Ding ware examples excavated from the Jingzhi Temple pagoda (dated AD 977) and the Jingzhongyuan Temple pagoda (dated AD 995) in Dingzhou, Hebei province (see Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Treasures from the Underground Palaces - Excavated from Northern Song Pagodas, Dingzhou, Hebei Province, China, Tokyo, 1997, nos. 57-58 and 87). The kundika with shoulder spout is also often referred to as a pure or holy water flask or sprinkler, and, like the current vessel, is associated with Buddhism. The flask has a slightly wider mouth than that seen on the kundika, and the flange is positioned lower on the neck. In sculpted or painted images of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara it is sometimes difficult to see if it is the flask with no shoulder spout, or the kundika, with shoulder spout, that is held in the right hand of the Bodhisattva. What is noticeable, however, is that in the majority of depictions, from the Tang dynasty onwards, the Bodhisattva holds the vessel by the neck, using the flange to suspend it between two fingers. Such a bottle can be seen held between the fingers of a Tang dynasty sandstone eleven-headed Avalokitesvara from the Baoqing Temple, Xi'an, Shaanxi province, now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, dated to c. 703, (illustrated in China - Dawn of a Golden Age, 200-750 AD, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2004, p. 301, no. 193). An example of this type of bottle can also be seen in the right hand of Avalokitesvara in a painting dated AD 910 from Cave 12 at Dunhuang (illustrated by R. Whitfield and S. Farrer in Caves of the Thousand Buddhas - Chinese Art from the Silk Route, British Museum, London, 1990, p. 41, no. 12). A similar flanged bottle is held in the right hand of a beautiful, Yongle marked, gilt bronze seated figure of Avalokitesvara in the Rietberg Museum (illustrated in On the Path to Enlightenment - The Berti Aschmann Foundation of Tibetan Art at the Museum Rietberg Zurich, Zurich, 1995, pp. 98-9, no. 52). Unusually this latter figure holds the flask upside-down because the right hand is in the varada mudra, (gift bestowing hand gesture), however the flange on the neck of the bottle can clearly be seen.
According to the late Professor Wang Qingzheng, in discussing a Qianlong version of this form with overglaze iron-red decoration, this type of Qing dynasty flask was known in China as a zang cao ping, Tibetan herb bottle, or gan lu ping, sweet dew bottle (see Wang Qingzheng (ed.) in Dictionary of Chinese Ceramics, Sun Tree Publishing, Singapore, 2002, p. 47, lower right). In the Qianlong reign such vessels were specially commissioned imperial gifts presented to Tibetan monks, and according to the Yinliu zhai shuo ci (Description of porcelain from the Studio of Drinking Steams), they were not made after the Qianlong reign because no further Tibetan monks came to court. Professor Wang notes that in the Qing period such bottles were placed in front of Buddhist shrines to hold herbs. It is likely that Ming dynasty flasks such as the current example were used in the same way, and it is very possible that this flask was made as an imperial gift for one of the Tibetan hierarchs who came to the Chinese court at the invitation of the emperor during the Xuande reign. One such important visitor was Śākya Yeshe, who was invited to Beijing in 1426 by the Xuande Emperor in order to conduct post-funerary services for both his father the Hongxi Emperor and his grandfather the Yongle Emperor. Śākya Yeshe arrived in Beijing in 1429, and duly performed the requisite rituals. In the same year, the Xuande Emperor conferred on him the title of Daci Fawang (大慈法王Dharma Lord of Great Compassion). Śākya Yeshe died in Beijing in 1435.
While a number of extant porcelain flasks of this shape are known from the Qianlong reign, decorated in overglaze iron-red enamel or underglaze-blue and overglaze enamels in doucai style, early 15th century examples are extremely rare, especially those decorated in underglaze blue. However, blue and white porcelain vessels with flanges on their necks were being made at Jingdezhen as early as the Yuan dynasty. The neck of such a bottle was excavated from the Yuan stratum at Luomaqiao, Jingdezhen, and included in the exhibition, Ceramic Finds from Jingdezhen Kilns, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, 1992, no. 150, while two blue and white flasks on stands, preserved in the Qingyang City Cultural Bureau, Anhui province, are illustrated by Zhu Yuping, Yuandai qinghua ci, Wenhui chubanshe, Shanghai, 2000, p. 142, no. 6-19. A Yuan dynasty flask with flanged neck and pale bluish glaze in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing is illustrated in Zhongguo wenwu jinghua daquan - Taoci juan, Taipei, 1993, p. 355, no. 623, where its use in Tibetan Buddhism is noted (fig.1). A white glazed vessel of this form was also excavated from the Yuan dynasty stratum at the Dehua kilns in Fujian province (illustrated in Dehua Wares, Fung Ping Shan Museum, University of Hong Kong, 1990, p. 109, no. 94). A Yongle bottle of this form with a celadon glaze imitating Longquan ware was excavated from the site of the imperial kilns at Zhushan, Jingdezhen in 1982 (illustrated in Imperial Hongwu and Yongle Porcelain excavated at Jingdezhen, Chang Foundation, Taipei, 1996, pp. 302-3, no. 121). While the Yuan dynasty vessels do not flare out at the foot, perhaps because they were intended to be displayed on stands like those of the Anhui vessels, both the excavated Yongle bottle and the current bottle have widely flaring feet, which give them greater stability. The early Ming vessels are of more slender proportions than their Yuan dynasty counterparts. A minyao bottle of this type with underglaze blue decoration, with broken neck, has also been excavated from a tomb at Jingdezhen dated to the Xuande-Zhengtong period (illustrated in Zhongguo taoci chuanji 19 Jingdezhen minjian qinghua ciqi, Shanghai, 1983, no. 12). A blue and white holy water bottle of very similar form and decoration to the current vessel is in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, where it is dated to the Chenghua reign (see The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 35, Blue and White with Underglaze Red (II), Hong Kong, 2000, no. 1 (fig.2).
A rare blue and white Kangxi porcelain bottle of this type, but with reduced flange, is preserved in the Nanjing Museum (illustrated in Qing Imperial Porcelain, Nanjing Museum and Art Gallery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995, no. 17). Flasks of this form appear to have been made in greater numbers during the Qianlong reign, and several decorated in overglaze iron-red have been preserved. One such flask is preserved in the Nanjing Museum (illustrated by Nanjing Museum in The Official Kiln Porcelain of the Chinese Qing Dynasty, Shanghai, 2003, p. 225), and another is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (illustrated in Emperor Ch'ien-lung's Grand Cultural Enterprise, National Palace Museum, 2002, p. 161, no. IV-32), while a flask of similar form but with flared mouth and more rounded flange, decorated in underglaze blue and overglaze enamels in doucai style, is in the Nanjing Museum (illustrated in Qing Imperial Porcelain, op. cit., no. 103). The Qianlong emperor's fondness for such flasks may be gauged from the fact that an iron-red decorated bottle of this type appears on a table along with Song and early Ming ceramics, and some ancient bronze vessels in a portrait of the emperor by Giuseppe Castiglione (Lang Shining) and Ding Guanpeng (illustrated in The Qianlong Emperor - Treasures from the Forbidden City, National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2002, p. 109, no. 57) (fig.3).
Imperial reverence for blue and white holy water bottles of this type in the Qing dynasty, is also demonstrated by the fact that an underglaze blue vessel of this same form appears on an imperial scroll in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, entitled Guwan tu (Scroll of Antiques), depicting items from the imperial collection dated to the Yongzheng reign AD 1729 (sections of the scroll, but not this section, are illustrated in China - The Three Emperors 1662-1795, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2005, pp. 254-255, no. 169). Even more significantly, there are two references to Xuande blue and white holy water bottles in the Qinggong Ciqi Dang Qing Palace Porcelain Archives. The first dates to the third year of the Qianlong reign (1738) and notes:
‘On the 30th day, Storekeeper Liu Shanjiu, Seventh-rank Steward Samuha, and Supervisor Bai Shixiu reported to the Chief Steward. Upon opening the package, they presented one Xuande ganlu vase [holy water bottle]. An imperial decree was issued: “Have a stand fitted for it. By Imperial Order”.’
The second mention in the archives dates from the 30th year of the Qianlong reign (1765) and notes:
‘On the 13th day of the 8th month, the eunuch Hu Shijie delivered one Xuande ganlu vase with underglaze blue decoration on a white ground (together with its zitan wood stand) … An imperial decree was issued: “Let the Imperial Workshops take it to the capital and place it among the miscellaneous objects for use. By Imperial Order”.’