Page 16 - Sotheby's YAMANAK Vase Oct. 3, 2018

fig. 2 fig. 3
Longquan celadon reticulated meiping, 14th-early 15th century Blue and white ‘floral’ ewer, mark and period of Xuande
Qing court collection
© Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing

Flowers (today in the St. Louis Art Museum, 97:1926). On this style is expressly referred to as ‘Longquan’ in the Zaobanchu
vase, the different fishes are depicted in a highly exceptional records, where an entry for 1743 talks about a pair of yangcai
and totally new manner, carved in relief, and the enamels are yellow-ground reticulated vases with ‘Longquan openwork
superbly employed to render their iridescent shimmering skin. design’, for which stands were to be made.
The celadon-coloured reticulated walls equally refer to the When peering through the reticulated outer shell of our vase,
Song dynasty, but to the Southern Song (1127-1279). Vases the Qianlong Emperor would have had a real surprise, since
constructed in this way probably originated with the official nothing on the outside of this vase would have prepared
(guan) kilns of Hangzhou, as evidenced by two fragmentary him for what there is inside: Inside the vase, one can make
pear-shaped vases excavated at Laohudong (Du Zhengxian, out a blue-and-white vase painted in the style of Jingdezhen
ed., Hangzhou Laohudong yaozhi ciqi jingxuan [Selection porcelain of the Yongle and Xuande reigns (1403-1435),
of porcelains from the Laohudong kiln sites in Hangzhou], perhaps the most admired blue-and-white style ever, that
Beijing, 2002, pls 24 and 25). They are much better known, the kilns zealously copied in his own period. The underglaze-
however, from the Longquan kilns, also in Zhejiang, which blue decorated inner vase is painted with a composite flower
produced reticulated pear-shaped as well as meiping vases scroll as can be seen on many early Ming (1368-1644) vessels,
(see the catalogue of the Oriental Ceramic Society exhibition for example, around the body of a ewer from the Qing court
China without Dragons. Rare Pieces from Oriental Ceramic collection in the Palace Museum, Beijing (The Complete
Society Members, Sotheby’s London, 2016, cat. no. 96, Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and
forthcoming 2018; fig. 2). Although these are today generally White Porcelain with Underglazed Red, Shanghai, 2000, vol.
attributed to the 14th or early 15th century, for a Qing (1644- 1, pl. 119; fig. 3); while a contemporary version of that design
1911) emperor, Longquan most probably signified Song. The is exemplified by a flower-decorated blue-and-white vase of

14 SOTHEBY’S 蘇富比