Page 20 - Nov. 27, 2019 Christie's Important Works of Art HK

Both the Xuande emperor’s personal interest in porcelain production
and his determination to stamp out official corruption can be seen in an
incident related in the Ming Shilu. When, in 1427-8, the supervisor of the
official factory at Raozhou (Jingdezhen), Zhang Shan, was found guilty
of corruption and brutality to his subordinates, the emperor ordered his
execution. Production at the Imperial kilns at Jingdezhen was very extensive
in the Xuande reign. However, records state that in 1430 a request was
made to increase production, but that this was then deemed too wasteful
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and production ceased in the 9 month, and did not resume until 1433.
Thus, there appears to have been a two-year gap in production. Since the
Xuande reign is only ten years long, this means that all the wares that have
come down to us were produced in an eight-year period, which is quite
remarkable.

The more consistent use of reign marks on imperial wares is a feature of
Xuande porcelain. While a small number of Yongle porcelains bear marks in
an archaistic script, based on the style of the famous calligrapher Shen Du
( ᮨᄟ , 1357-1434), the porcelains of the Xuande reign bear reign marks
on a more regular basis and these are generally written in clerical script.
Some scholars have suggested that the style of the reign marks on Xuande
porcelains was based upon the emperor’s own calligraphy. This seems to be
borne out by comparison of the calligraphy inscribed on a hanging scroll,
painted in the first year of his reign, by the Xuande Emperor, entitled Dog
in a Bamboo Grove (illustrated by Richard M. Barnhart in Painters of the Great
Ming: Imperial Court and the Zhe School, Dallas, 1993, p. 55, no. 16), now in the
collection of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, (fig. 1) with
the characters as they appear in reign marks on porcelain. The characters
xuan ໿ and de ᇪ on the painting are particularly close to the style of the
same characters in the reign marks seen on imperial porcelains, such as
the current stem cup. (fig. 2) The placement of reign marks on Xuande
porcelains was very variable, and could be at the exterior or interior rim
of the vessel, on the base, inside the foot, or in the centre of the interior of
forms such as the current stem cup. The marks were sometimes written
inside a double circle and sometimes written in either or single horizontal
line or a single vertical line.
Although copper oxide was utilised to produce red decoration on high-
fired ceramics as early as the Tang dynasty, from that time onwards it
provided a formidable challenge to the potter. The production of fine
copper red decoration was so sensitive that great care has to be taken with
the preparation and density of copper oxide, the composition of the glaze,
the temperature and degree of reduction in the firing, and the placement of
the vessels within the kiln. The unusually successful copper red decoration
on the current stem cup is a testament to both the decorator and the kiln
master at the imperial kilns. The exceptional difficulties faced by the Chinese
imperial kilns trying to produce underglaze red decoration on porcelains is
well illustrated by various memorials sent to the imperial court by censors. fig. 1 Zhu Zhanji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Ming dynasty
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Even as late as the 5 year of the Longqing emperor’s reign (AD 1571), a (1399–1435), reigned 1426–1435. Dog and Bamboo, 1427.
Hanging scroll, ink and slight colour on paper, 79 x 28 3/8
despairing censor called Xu Shi sent a memorial to the throne begging the inches (200.7 x 72 cm). The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
emperor to reduce the burden placed on the workforce by excessive palace Kansas City, Missouri. Purchase: William Rockhill Nelson
Trust, 45-39. Photo: John Lamberton
orders for Jingdezhen porcelain. One of the most significant parts of his
எӬ ᚺ໿໵ ប⑶ఫ ǶӬ⛮எǷ ⡢‰㙪㩛⁞㞖ᙱࢷ⁒㱦⻦৅
request was that the order for underglaze red decorated porcelains should be
replaced by those decorated with overglaze iron red. Bearing in mind not
only that Chinese emperors did not usually accede gracefully to suggested
curbing of their imperial demands, but also the fact that porcelains decorated
in overglaze iron red would have to be fired twice – with concomitant
losses, such a request would not have been made lightly. It provides, however,

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