A rare peachblom-glazed 'chrysanthemum' vase, Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722)

17 septembre 2020

A rare peachblom-glazed 'chrysanthemum' vase, Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722)

the ovoid body resting on a short, slightly domed footrim, surmounted by a tall cylindrical neck with a flared mouth, the base encircled by a broad molded row of slender upright chrysanthemum petals, applied overall with a variegated rose-colored glaze subtly flecked with crimson red and draining to white at the petals, lip, and top half of the footring, the petals fired to a mottled green, the recessed base glazed white and with a six-character mark in underglaze blue in three columns, wood stand (2)

Exhibited: Exhibition of Ancient Chinese Ceramics from the Collection of the Kau Chi Society of Chinese Art, Art Gallery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1981, cat. no. 126.

Note: Known as juban ping, 'chrysanthemum petal vase', this piece is remarkable for its pleasing, well-balanced form and delicate rose-pink glaze. The remarkable quality and variety of new forms created during the Kangxi reign at the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen could hardly be better illustrated than by the five peachbloom vessels in this sale, lots 102, 103, 113, 115 and the present vase. Their fine potting and striking mottled glazes display the technological and artistic advances made at Jingdezhen in this period.

Vases of this form are held in important museums and private collections worldwide; a similar vase from the Qing Court Collection is illustrated in Kangxi, Yongzheng, Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 138, pl. 121; one in the Shanghai Museum is published in Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 204; another in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, was included in Special Exhibition of Ch'ing-Dynasty Monochrome Porcelains in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, pl. 2; and a fourth vase from the Sir Percival David Collection and now in the British Museum, is published in Oriental Ceramics. The World's Great Collections, vol. 6, Tokyo, 1982, col. pl. 52. See two vases of this form and decoration sold in our Hong Kong rooms, one on 8th October 2006, lot 1017 and the other on 23rd October 2005, lot 314; and another from the Jingguantang Collection sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 3rd November 1996, lot 557. A vase of this type from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, sold at Christie's New York, 15th September 2016, lot 913. See also the example from the J. Insley Blair Collection sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 28th November 2012, lot 211.

Vases of this form are also known covered overall in a celadon glaze, such as three illustrated in Sekai toji zenshu/Ceramic Art of the World, vol. 15, Shogakukan, 1983, pl. 32: one from the Palace Museum, Beijing, another from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the third from the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; and two vases in the Widener Collection, published op. cit., pp 101-3.

Of all the innovative forms developed in the Kangxi period, chrysanthemum vases were perhaps the most influential, as they inspired the numerous chrysanthemum-shaped vessels of the succeeding Yongzheng reign (r. 1723-1735). See for example two celadon-glazed vases with Yongzheng marks and of the period, similarly decorated above the foot with petals, sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 15th November 1988, lot 304.

Sotheby's. Kangxi Porcelain - A Private Collection. Live Auction: 22 September 2020 • 3:00 PM CEST • New York

Posté par Alain Truong à 22:12 - Commentaires […] - Permalien [#]

Tags: 'chrysanthemum' vase, Kangxi mark and period (1662-1722), peachblom-glazed