Page 34 - 2019 September 12th Christie's New York Chiense Art Chicago Art Institute

TWO RARE AND

EXCEPTIONALLY LARGE

WANLI WUCAI VASES

Rosemary Scott
Senior International Academic Consultant, Asian Art

hese two rare vases combine elegant form and vibrant decoration with monumental size
(H: 54.6 cm.). The form of the vases is known as suantouping in Chinese, and garlic-
T mouth vase in English, because of the bulb-like section at the top of the extended neck.
The origins of the form appear to be in metalwork. The garlic-shaped mouth seems frst to have
been seen on bronzes made in the Qin territory during the latter part of the Eastern Zhou period
(see Jenny So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Washington,
1995, pl. 52), but the bronze form did not retain its popularity for long. It has been suggested by
the eminent Chinese scholar Wang Qingzheng that the ceramic vase form may have derived from
stoneware jugs with bulb-shaped mouths which had been popular in China since before the Han
dynasty (see Dictionary of Chinese Ceramics, Singapore, 2002, p. 54). The proto-type for this
ceramic vase form appears as early as the Song dynasty.

Garlic-mouth vases are characterised by their bulb-shaped mouths - usually plain but sometimes
lobed or even petalled - long necks and pear-shaped bodies. At the Jingdezhen kilns the form
became established in porcelain in the Yuan dynasty and fourished in the Ming and Qing
dynasties. In some periods the mouth terminated with the inward curve of the bulb, while in
others the mouth was topped by a short, vertical rim - as in the case of the current Wanli vases.
On these vases, this short rim provided an ideal site for the six-character Wanli reign mark.
Although in the Qing period the garlic-mouth vase form was popular amongst monochrome Fig. 1. Vase with fsh and water plants in
underglaze blue, Wanli period (1573-1619)
porcelains, those decorated in underglaze blue, and those decorated in fencai famille rose © Shanghai Museum
overglaze enamels, in the Jiajing and Wanli reigns of the Ming dynasty either underglaze blue or
wucai decoration appears to have been the preferred decorative technique for the embellishment
of this shape. Both the Shanghai Museum and the Palace Museum, Beijing have in their
collections somewhat smaller Wanli vases of this form decorated in underglaze blue with similar
motifs to those applied in wucai (fve colour) technique on the current vases, and with Wanli
reign marks written around the rim of the mouth (see T. M. Ell‘ns (ed.), Imperial Porcelain from
the Shanghai Museum, The Hague, 2011, p. 21, no. 1 (Fig. 1), and Blue and White Porcelain with
Underglaze Red (II), The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 35, Hong
Kong, 2000, p. 176, no. 165). Although the minor decorative bands are diferent, both these vases
have a design of fsh and crustaceans around the main body of the vessels. These decorative
bands are very similar to that on the current vases, although the blue and white version is slightly
less complex and has visually dominant horizontal striations – indicating water – throughout,
while the wucai version of the design on the current vases uses these much more sparingly. Like
the current wucai vases, the neck of the Shanghai blue and white vase is decorated with bamboo,
a blossoming spray rising from the lower edge of the band, and a descending blossoming branch.
The Shanghai vase also has smaller fower sprays on the upper bulb, although both the Beijing
and Shanghai blue and white vases have petal bands around the mouth.
Fig. 2. A wucai ‘garlic-head’ vase with fsh
and water weed decoration, Wanli period
Five Wanli wucai garlic-mouth vases in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing are published
(1573-1619).
in Porcelains in Polychrome and Contrasting Colours, The Complete Collection of Treasures of the The Palace Museum/ Image copyright
© The Palace Museum, Photographer
Palace Museum, vol. 38, Hong Kong, 1999, pp. 27-31, nos. 24-28. One of these, although smaller Zhao Shan