Jar and cover
Category
Ceramics
Date
circa 1700
Materials
porcelain, underglaze cobalt blue
Place of origin
Jingdezhen
Order this imageCollection
Wallington, Northumberland
NT 581772
Summary
Jar and cover, porcelain, small of ovoid form, with shallow domed cover, made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China, circa 1700; decorated in underglaze cobalt blue, painted with two female courtiers seated at a table playing a board game, known as 'weiqi' in a garden; the cover decorated with a boy dancing.
Full description
These small jars with the subject of women playing a traditional strategic court board game known as Weiqi, or Go, were very popular, there are about six in the collection of Augustus the Strong, by 1721, and now owned by the Dresden State Art Collections (Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden). Some may have been used as canisters for holding tea in Europe or simply for decoration.
Provenance
Gift from Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan 3rd Bt