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Artwork Details
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Title:Water pot
Artist:Chinese , Qing Dynasty
Date:1662–1722
Culture:Chinese
Medium:Porcelain with incised decoration under peach-bloom glaze.
Dimensions:Height: 3 9/16 in. (9 cm.)
Classification:Ceramics
Credit Line:Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number:1975.1.1690
Such a water pot of the type known in China as a ji zhao zun (chicken-coop vase) is frequently referred to in the West as “beehive-shaped.” The semiglobular body tapers into a short, narrow neck that flares slightly at the mouth. Three dragon medallions have been incised into the body; however, they have been filled with glaze so completely that they can only be seen under certain light and with the aid of a magnifying glass. The strong pink glaze varies in areas from slight flushes of gray to deep rose, with occasional flecks of darker pink and tiny spots of greenish black. The mouth rim and inside of the vessel are covered in a clear glaze; the glaze on the recessed flat base is slightly bluish in tone and shows a few pinholes. The small rounded foot rim is unglazed, revealing a fine white body. The mark, Da Qing Kangxi nianzhi (Made in the Kangxi reign of the great Qing dynasty), is written in three vertical rows in underglaze blue, with no encircling element, on the base. This is a very fine representation of the well-known group of vessels — in all likelihood consisting of nine specific shapes(1) — made for the writer’s table during the early eighteenth century. The effect is quite subdued in these famous Kangxi peach-bloom glazes. Soft and velvety, they vary in color from piece to piece but are essentially pale pinkish red in tone, often shading to darker values; the glazes are sometimes plain, frequently mottled, and, in a particularly appealing version, show tender flushes of moss green. Peach-bloom-glazed porcelains can be found to some extent in European collections; however, Americans seem to have been the most prominent buyers in the West during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For instance, there are nearly one hundred such vessels in the Metropolitan Museum alone, representing eight of the nine distinct shapes.(2)
Catalogue entry from Suzanne G. Valenstein. The Robert Collection. Decorative Arts, Volume XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 339-340.
NOTES: 1. While it had been believed for many years that there were eight prescribed shapes in the Kangxi peach-bloom-glazed porcelains, it recently was established that there were, in fact, nine. See Ayers, John. “The ‘Peachbloom’ Wares of the Kangxi Period (1662 –1722).” Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society 64 (pub. 2001), 1999-2000, pp. 31 – 50. 2. Valenstein, Suzanne G. A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1975, no. 138; Valenstein. “Highlights of Chinese Ceramics.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 33, no. 3 (Autumn), 1975, fig. 35; Valenstein. A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics. Rev. and enlarged ed. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1989, nos. 231 – 38.
Marking: Kangxi mark, 1662-1722
Mrs. Henry Walters, Baltimore; Walters sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 23-26 April 1941, lot 224, ill. Acquired by Robert Lehman from the Walters sale.
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