Page 49 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain, The Getty Museum
P. 49
5. PAIR OF L I D D E D J A R S
THE PORCELAIN: Chinese (Kangxi), 1662-1722
THE GILT-BRONZE MOUNTS: French, circa 1715-20
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HEIGHT: i ft., i /! in. (34.2 cm); WIDTH: i ft., A in. (32.5 cm); DIAMETER: i ft., i in. (33 cm)
75.DI.5.1-.2,
DESCRIPTION MARKS
Each of the circular and tapering lidded jars is The gilt-bronze mounts are struck with the crowned
composed of three pieces of porcelain cut down from C mark nine times on each of the vases: once on the
two slightly larger jars and mounted with gilt bronze. foot, lip, and two rim mounts, on each handle, and on
The lid is in two stages, joined midway by a plain mold- the finial, its base, and the plate in the interior.
ing of gilt bronze. There is a handle at each side of the
body (fig. 5A). COMMENTARY
The body and lid are enameled in pale and dark The shoulders of both lids have been broken and
green, aubergine, and iron red with lotus, prunus buds, restored in a number of places. The original upper part
and Buddhist "precious things." These are scattered of one of the lids (fig. 50) has been almost completely
over black-penciled waves that break against formal overpainted; as this section of the lid is not broken, it is
rockwork between double lines of underglaze blue. The likely that the enamel overglaze decoration has peeled
foot is held in a simple circular mount of gilt bronze off and the losses repainted (figs. 50 and 5E).
with a gadrooned shoulder between plain borders. This The jars were probably made for export, although
is linked at each side by pierced straps to a similar mold- they are decorated with traditional motifs. They were
ing that encircles the rim of the vase. Each strap, which made in a private, not imperial, kiln, and the products
is attached above and below by pinned hinges, is of of such kilns were not always of the highest quality. A
strapwork that incorporates acanthus leaves, C-scrolls, complete jar and lid, i foot, zVs inches high but with an
and husks. To the upper part of each side is attached a aubergine ground, is in the Musee Guimet, Paris. 1
ribbed handle that is interrupted at the center with In March 1745 an edict registered by the French
adorsed leaf cups. Parlement declared that a tax should be levied through-
The lower stage of the lid is the shoulder of the vase, out France on all objects "vieux et neufs de cuivre pur,
cut at the original luted joint and with the cylindrical de fonte, de bronze et autres de cuivre melange, fondu,
neck removed. It is joined to the reduced original lid, battus, forge, plane, grave, dore, argente, et mis en cou-
which has had the plain porcelain knop replaced with a leurs," and it was laid down that a mark should be struck
gilt-bronze finial in the form of a foliated cup filled with on each piece of bronze at the time the tax was paid,
berries that rest on a circular gadrooned base of gilt much in the way that taxes had been levied on precious
bronze. The two stages of the lid are joined by a bolt metals for many centuries. Henri Nocq, 2 the great au-
that passes from the finial through a circular plate of gilt thority on French silver, suggested that the mark proba-
bronze with matted design within the base of the dome, bly took the form of a letter C (for cuivre, copper, the
where it is secured by a nut (fig. 50). principal metal in bronze) surmounted by a crown, often
found on works of gilt bronze. But he could not prove
this, for the edict made no reference to the form of the
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