Vase
Category
Ceramics
Date
1736 - 1795
Materials
Porcelain, cobalt, gold
Measurements
450 mm (Height); 170 mm (Diameter); 280 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Jingdezhen
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 870846
Summary
Vase, porcelain, of baluster shape surmounted by a tall neck with a flaring rim (fengweizun 凤尾尊 or ‘phoenix tail’ shape), made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China, Qianlong period (1736–95), covered with an underglaze blue ground decorated with landscapes painted in gold.
Full description
The use of an underglaze cobalt blue ground is sometimes called Mazarin (or Mazareen) blue in English, after the French bleu Mazarin, possibly after Cardinal Mazarin (1602–61), prime minister of France, or his niece Hortense Mancini, Duchesse de Mazarin (1646–99) – but the reason for this is obscure. The cobalt could be applied through blowing, painting or dipping and was decorated in painted gold. For an almost identical vase at Saltram see NT 870937.
Provenance
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust, 1957.