Page 61 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain, The Getty Museum

8. PAIR OF L I D D E D VASES

THE PORCELAIN: Chinese (Kangxi), from Dehua, 1662-1722; circa 1700
THE SILVER MOUNTS: French (Paris), 1722-27
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3
HEIGHT: 7 /s in. (19.4 cm); WIDTH: 3 /8 in. (8.6 cm); DEPTH: 3 in. (7.7 cm)
9I.DI.103.1-.2,

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DESCRIPTION pan, where they were bought by the Dutch. The purity
This pair of small vases is made of fine white clay of these white wares appealed to collectors, and the
and covered with a clear glaze. A molded lion's head has porcelain manufacturers at Meissen, Saint-Cloud, and
been applied to either side of each vase just below the Chantilly sought to reproduce them. The finest Dehua
shoulder, and a small hole has been drilled through the vessels were made during the Kangxi dynasty. Since the
wall beneath. mid-nineteenth century, porcelain of this type has been
Each vase is mounted with silver at the foot and lip, known as blanc-de-chine.
and the upper part has been pierced with holes set with The form of these vases is familiar among Dehua
star-shaped silver mounts (fig. 8A). A finial in the form of wares. The presence of two larger vases of similar form,
a bud set in a six-leaf cup surmounts each silver lid. The inscribed with characters in grass script and datable to
domed lids are pierced with a repeating motif of scroll- 1683 and 1702, makes it possible to date the Getty Mu-
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ing leaves and have gadrooned rims (fig. SB). The lip of seum's pair of vases to between these years. Vases of this
the vase is encircled by a silver band. The foot is set in a type were originally meant to hold flowers during a reli-
mount decorated with bead-and-chain on the stippled gious ceremony. The Museum's pair was transformed
ground below a gadrooned band. to contain potpourri, the perfume of which escaped
through the holes in the vase and the lid. Given the jewel-
MARKS like quality of the mounts, these potpourris must have
Each lid and base mount is stamped with a dove been made for use in a small cabinet or bed chamber,
(fig. 8c), the Paris discharge mark for small silver works perhaps for the table carrying the silver boxes used for
used between May 6, 1722, and September 2, 1727, the toilette.
under the fermier Charles Cordier; a boar's head facing
right (fig. SD), the Paris discharge mark for small and PUBLICATIONS
old silver works used between December 23, 1768, and " Acquisitions/i991," GettyMus] zo (1992), p. 174
September i, 1775, under the fermier Julien Alaterre; no. 75; Bremer-David et al. 1993, p. 151, no. 252.
and the profile head of Minerva (fig. SE), the mark for
.800 silver works sold in France after May 10, 1838. PROVENANCE
Gift of Mme. Simone Steinitz, 1991.
COMMENTARY
The porcelain of Dehua in the southern Chinese
province of Fukien reached Europe in large quantities
during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Af-
ter the Ming dynasty (1388-1644), most Dehua wares
were exported from the Chinese port of Xiamen to Ja-

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