Vase: Qingbai Shufu-type ware (pair with 1975.1.1670)

This pair of rather coarsely potted pear-shaped vases has high, thick necks and cup-shaped mouths. They stand on very high, hollow feet that are stepped on the outside. A pair of flanged handles (perhaps in the shape of a bird) are placed on the necks; fixed rings are suspended from the handles. Both vases are covered with a bluish-toned glaze, similar in tone to qingbai (bluish white) wares, but with an opacity that is more characteristic of Shufu-type porcelains. The glazes stop just below the mouths on the inside, and extend to the feet on the outside. There is some glaze on the inside of the feet and on the bases as well. A qingbai-glazed vase with incised decoration, of similar — but much more elegant — shape, was among the remains of a Chinese merchant ship that sank off the coast of Sinan, Korea, probably in 1323.(1)

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. 310-311.

NOTE:
1. Sinan haejˇo yumul (Cultural Relics from the Sinan Coast). Edited by Munhwa Kongbobu Munhwajae Kwalliguk. 3 vols. Seoul, 1981 – 85, vol. 1 (1981), colorpl. 91, pl. 283.

[Ton-Ying & Company]; Ton-Ying sale, American Art Association, New York, 29-30 January 1926, lot 380, ill.; [Ton-Ying & Company]; Ton-Ying sale, American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, 24-25 January 1930, lot 389. Acquired by Robert Lehman from the 1930 Ton-Ying sale.