Vase
Category
Ceramics
Date
circa 1700
Materials
Porcelain, cobalt.
Measurements
175 mm (Height); 50 mm (Diameter); 30 mm (Diameter)
Place of origin
Jingdezhen
Collection
Saltram, Devon
NT 870996
Summary
Pair of vases, porcelain, in the shape of triple-lobed gourds with everted rims and on short footrings, made in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China, Kangxi period (1662–1722), c. 1700, the main body decorated in underglaze blue with previous objects and auspicious symbols, with bands of stylised leaves above and below, the middle section with stylised flowers and foliage reserved against underglaze blue, the top section decorated in underglaze light brown.
Full description
Chinese porcelain vases with complex shapes – such as the triple-lobed gourd shape, inspired by medicine bottles made of actual dried gourds – were popular in the European market during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, where they were used as part of interior decoration. Other features of these Kangxi wares were the practice of reserving the decoration against the underglaze blue (as the inverse of the more common practice of painting the decoration in blue on white) and the use of underglaze brown, called zeemleer (‘chamois leather’) in Dutch and café au lait in French (Jörg 1997). A group of very similar vases is in the collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, inv. nos. PO 226 – PO 229, PO 2203, PO 7108 and PO 8103 with a provenance from Augustus II (known as ‘the Strong’), Elector of Saxony (1670–1733), and listed in the 1721 inventory of the Palace in Alt-Dresden (as part of a group of 11 such vases, described as ‘Bouteillen mit doppelten runden Bäuchen u. gelben paßigten Hälsen’ or ‘bottles with round double bellies and yellow bulbed necks’). A pair of very similar vases was sold at Christie’s London, 18 May 2007, lot 25.
Provenance
Given to the National Trust by Montagu Brownlow Parker, 5th Earl of Morley (1878-1962), 1957.
References
Jörg 1997: Christiaan Jörg, Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: The Ming and Qing Dynasties, London, 1997, Cats 140-4, pp. 135-7