Flask with Scenes of Plowing and Weaving. Porcelain with underglaze blue. Mark and period Qianlong (1736-1795). 23 1/4 in. (59 cm). Acquired by Henry Walters, 1911. 49.2015.  The Walters Art Museum

The outer decoration of this oversized vessel is in the style of the early Ming [Ming] Dynasty; the scene is adapted from an illustration in a book showing scenes of ploughing and weaving, published ca. 1739. Blue and White porcelain in China came about as a result of the combination of the Chinese porcelain tradition with the trade in cobalt blue from Persia. Porcelain is a hard white ceramic composed of white-china clay, called kaolin, and refined porcelain stone, or petuntse. When fired together, these materials fuse to create a hard, vitrified ceramic. Blue and White porcelain is the successor to the Chinese Qingbai and Shufu traditions that preceded it, or ceramics with a white glaze and a slightly blue or blue-green tint. To achieve the Blue and White decorative style, cobalt underglaze is applied to the porcelain; it is then covered in clear glaze and fired. Cobalt was used by Persian potters for centuries before its import to China. It was introduced in approximately 1325 A.D. through with Persian merchant communities established along the Chinese coast. Following the introduction of this new, exotic decorative style, the city of Jingdezhen, known as the porcelain capital of China, began producing Blue and White porcelain wares with imported cobalt.

Provenance: William M. Laffan; William M. Laffan Sale, American Art Galleries, January 20-21, 1911, no. 107; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1911 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Exhibition: Masterpieces of Chinese Porcelain. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1980-1981.