Vase

Object Details

• Description

  Monochrome -- Southern Sung Kuan style.

  Vase: small, bottle-shaped; tall neck with ring in low relief around center; flaring lip.

  Body: not exposed; presumably fine-grained, pure white.

  Glaze: pale, opaque, blue-gray, so-called "clair de lune", very fine matte surface; covers entire vessel except footrim which is dressed with dark chocolate brown. Four character mark of the Yongzheng period: seal characters in underglaze blue, on base.

• Marks

  Four character mark of the Yongzheng period: seal characters in underglaze blue, on base.

• Label

  Eighteenth-century revivals of Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) Guan ware can be quite convincing. Many Southern Song originals feature crackled glaze, but some of the finest have uncrazed, matte glaze, which provided the inspiration for this copy. The dark purple foot of this vase resembles genuine Guanware, but the foot rim was dressed with iron to produce the dark color; the clay body is actually white porcelain clay.

• Provenance

  To 1946

  T.H. Ching, New York. [1]

  From 1946

  Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from T.H. Ching, New York. [2]

  Notes:

  [1] Freer Gallery of Art Purchase List after 1920, Collections Management Office.

  [2] See note 1.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Shades of Green and Blue: Chinese Celadon Ceramics (July 15, 1997 to September 7, 2004)

  Centennial Exhibition, Gallery 13 (November 10, 1955 to March 1, 1957)

  Special Exhibition, Chinese Art, 1946 (August 7, 1946 to January 7, 1947)

• Previous custodian or owner

  T. H. Ching

• Origin

  Imperial kiln, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, China

• Credit Line

  Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment

• Type

  Vessel

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1720s, 1730s

• Name

  Ching, T. H.

• Place

  China, Jiangxi province, Imperial kiln, Jingdezhen

• Topic

  Porcelain, Art, Chinese Art, Qing dynasty (1644 - 1911), Ceramics, Jingdezhen ware

• Culture

  Chinese

• Object Type

  Vessels (containers)