A Pair of Large Famille Verte Jars & Covers with Riverscapes, China, Kangxi period (1662 – 1722), circa 1700-1720. Photo courtesy Vanderven Oriental Art.

Height : 65 cm. Price on request

Provenance: Lolo Collection, UK 

These rare large jars with domed covers, are decorated all over with large panels in a tortoiseshell brocade pattern. Each panel is framed with a band of blossoms and decorated with riverscapes with figures. On the shoulder is a dividing scroll with reserves depicting the ‘Hundred Treasures’. The bright green enamelling pingguo qing, is characteristic of this period and is accentuated against the bright white ground.  

The idyllic scenes show figures in leisurely country pursuits, idealized by the mandarin elite of their day. Some scenes allude to places on the West Lake, near Hangzhou. One scene shows two figures in a boot appreciating three pagodas in a lake. We can clearly see the half moon in the sky is also reflected in the water. These are the well known ‘Three Pools Mirroring the Moon’ in the West Lake, Hangzhou. These three pagodas were erected by Su Shi (1037-1101), Governor of Hangzhou during the Northern Song Dynasty. In another panel, there are two men crossing a bridge over water which is full of black and red fish. To a Chinese this would have associations with the Daoist work Zhuangzi (3rd Century BC) about the ‘Joys of Fish’ .  

And the scene with blooming peaches and green willows also reminds people of the spring in Hangzhou, the scenes of ‘Spring Dawn at Su Causeway’ and ‘Orioles Singing in the Willows’.  

We have little information about the exact process of producing famille verte wares in the Kangxi period. We assume that the glazed and fired, but undecorated pieces, were transported from the larger kilns to different specialist workshops. Here they were painted with coloured enamels and fired again, at lower temperatures of about 800°C, in a so-called muffle kiln.  

The term famille verte, was actually coined by Albert Jacquemart in 1862 when he wrote: 
‘The name we have given to this family…is, as one can see, totally empirical,, but it is derived from a striking characteristic: on almost all pieces a lively green, transparent, often iridescent shines brilliantly, applied in grand, splendid areas equally as important as the blue or the red of the preceding families.. 

A similar single vase can be found in the collection of Augustus the Strong, Dresden.  

Literature:
• Christiaan J.A. Jörg, Famille Verte. Chinese Porcelain in Green Enamels, Exhitibiton Groninger Museum, 2011, p.9-11 

• Eva Ströber, “La maladie de porcelaine…” East Asian Porcelain from the Collection of Augustus the Strong, Leipzig, 2001, pl. 26 

Vanderven Oriental Art - http://www.vanderven-vanderven.com/