Sprinkler bottle
Category
Ceramics
Date
1700 - 1720
Materials
porcelain, underglaze cobalt blue and iron oxide
Measurements
177.8 mm (Height)
Place of origin
Jingdezhen
Order this imageCollection
Wallington, Northumberland
NT 581762
Summary
Two sprinkler-bottles, porcelain, of compressed bottle shape with high flared foot, made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China, c. 1700-1720; decorated in underglaze cobalt blue and iron oxide, painted within three oval reserves with examples of the 100 treasures or bogu (博古 Hundred Antiquities) motifs, including archaic bronze vases, censers, and books, against a café-au-lait pale brown ground.
Full description
These bottles are known as sprinklers, and were used in Indo-Islamic countries for rose-scented water or other perfumed liquids which were sprinkled over guests on arrival. The are also found in Indian silver and glass ware, Europeans also adopted the practice or found other uses for them. For metal examples in the National Trust see at Snowshill NT 1333835 and 1333858. The café-au-lait or pale brown ground is commonly identified as Batavia ware, associating it with a trading port of the Dutch East India Company, now known as Jakarta. Examples were salvaged from the wreck of a trading ship, probably a Chinese junk dating to approximately 1725, made at the start of the reign of the Yongzheng emperor (1723-1735). The wreck was discovered off the Southern coast of Vietnam in 1998 near Ca Mau, and known as the Ca Mau wreck. The colour palette was introduced in the Kangxi period, and was made in several different tones from light to dark, and is also described as dead leaf brown. There is similar pair of bottles, perhaps later, at Penrhyn Castle (NT 1419773)
Provenance
Gift from Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan 3rd Bt