Covered ewer

This well-made ewer could be used as a wine pot or a teapot. It has a barrel-shaped body; a very high, wide, distinct neck; a curved spout; an eared handle; and a domed lid. It has been decorated on the unglazed body, or biscuit, with bright green, pale aubergine, light mustard-yellow, and clear enamels filling in black-outlined designs. An ascending and descending crane in clouds is on either side of the tall neck. Each side of the body carries a haima (flying horse) soaring above spiral waves that are strewn with prunus flowers and stylized auspicious symbols. The symbols include the solid lozenge, pair of books, swastika lozenge, pair of horns, open lozenge with ribbons, and leaf. The handle and spout each carry a blossom; waves and rocks are painted on the body below them. The lid is decorated with two auspicious symbols and two flowers against waves. The flat base is covered with a thin, rather shiny, translucent glaze that shows a few of the “snail-tracks” seen on some glazes of this period. The foot is deep and slightly spreading; the unglazed foot rim exhibits a fine-textured white body. The vessel is unglazed inside. This ewer is quite unusual. The shape is very similar to that of a pair of covered porcelain pouring vessels at Burghley House, Stamford, England.(1) These pots, decorated in underglaze blue and iron brown on a crackled gray ground, were included in a 1690 inventory, the Devonshire Schedule, where they are described as “A pair of sillabub Potts.” Several blue-and-white porcelain covered wine pots were among the salvaged cargo of the “Hatcher Junk” that sank in the South China Sea, probably between 1643 and 1646. Although their necks are shorter than those on the Lehman and Burghley House works, their shape is akin to the Lehman pot.(2) The decoration on this ewer is easier to localize. The crane can be found in fourteenth-century Chinese blue-and-white porcelains, and it was an especially popular decorative motif during the middle and late sixteenth century. The design on the lower portion of the vessel is relatable to several pieces. Six blue-and-white porcelain dishes with the unusual decoration of a sea serpent reserved in white against a flower-strewn, spiralwave background were in the “Hatcher Junk” mentioned above. These dishes carried the apocryphal reign-mark of the Ming-dynasty Jiajing emperor (1522 – 66).(3) A blue-and-white dish with essentially the same decoration, dated in accordance with 1644 – 45, is in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London.(4) Six blue-and-white porcelain dishes showing a haima (flying horse) against the same flower-strewn, spiral-wave background were also in the “Hatcher Junk” sale. These pieces carried the apocryphal reign-mark of the Mingdynasty Xuande emperor (1426 – 35).(5) Mid- to late seventeenth-century and eighteenth-century Chinese porcelains decorated with enamels on the biscuit — as in the Lehman ewer — frequently show prunus flowers and auspicious objects against a spiralwave background. Haima, sometimes associated with other fabulous beasts, are often found soaring above the waves as well. Generally this type of decoration is seen on bowls and small serving pieces, some of which carry apocryphal Ming-dynasty reign-marks or correct reignmarks of the Qing-dynasty Kangxi period. However, it is also found on other vessels, such as covered pots with short necks, wide-mouthed jars, high-shouldered covered jars, and tall cylindrical ewers that are based on a Tibetan shape.(6)

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. 328-329.


NOTES:
1. The Wrestling Boys: An Exhibition of Chinese and Japanese Ceramics from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century in the Collection at Burghley House. Exhibition, Burghley House, 1983. Catalogue by Gordon Lang. Stamford, Lincolnshire, England, 1983, no. 169.
2. Christie’s, Amsterdam, 14 March 1984, lot 67, pl. p. 9; Sheaf, Colin, and Richard S. Kilburn. The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes: The Complete Record. Oxford, 1988, pls. 89, 90.
3. Sheaf and Kilburn, p. 27, pl. 95.
4. Ibid., p. 27, pl. 14.
5. Christie’s, Amsterdam, 14 March 1984, lot 342, pl. p. 56; Sheaf and Kilburn, pl. 94.
6. For a work in the Tibetan “monk’s cap – jug shape,” see Metropolitan Museum, 61.200.7.

[Ton-Ying & Company]; Ton-Ying sale, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, 24-25 January 1930, lot 354, ill. Acquired by Robert Lehman from the Ton-Ying sale.