Page 66 - Kraak Porcelain, Jorge Welsh

47 Wine pot

Ming dynasty, Wanli period
( - ), ca.
Chinese porcelain decorated
in underglaze cobalt blue
Height: . cm; maximum
width: cm

A heavy and thickly potted wine pot modelled with modelled with a globular body moulded with six vertical
a globular body, small S-shaped spout, a tall square-
shaped handle rising from the rounded shoulders in line panels, small s-shaped spout and a square-shaped
with the spout and low, v-shaped foot ring. The wide,
low unglazed mouth rim has a domed cover surmounted handle with rounded corners rising from their shoulders
by a pointed knob. The wine pot is finely decorated in
silvery shades of cobalt blue, darkening in some areas in line with the spout. These wine pots also have low
to a blackish blue, beneath a blue–tinged glaze. The
sides of the wine pot are moulded in low relief with domed covers with a pointed or fruit-shaped knob.
six vertical panels decorated with stylized blossoming
flower sprays alternating with auspicious symbols and They measure between . and . cm in height. Their
ribbons pending from tassels, separated by double blue
lines, all painted with thin blue outlines and pencil- skilfully painted decoration, finely executed with thin
drawn parallel lines. The shoulder is decorated with a
bracket-lobed band formed by two oval panels enclosing blue outlines filled with pencil-drawn parallel lines, is
a stylized flower spray reserved on a swastika-diaper
ground. The domed cover is similarly decorated with rarely found on other kraak wares. This distinctive blue
flower panels on a swastika-diaper ground. The spout
is decorated with a leaf and flame motifs; the handle pencilled style contrasts with the usual kraak style of
with a lozenge between leaves and scrolling foliage. The
recessed base is slightly convex and glazed. The low, decoration executed with thin blue outlines and light
v-shaped foot ring has a faceted edge and is unglazed.
Coarse sand from the kiln adheres to the foot ring. The washes of blue.
interior of the wine pot is irregularly glazed; and the
underside of the cover is partially glazed. This style of underglaze cobalt blue painting appears

Wine pots such as the present example belong to a first on Jingdezhen porcelain wares for the domestic
small group of kraak closed forms. They are all similarly
market in the late Wanli period. The execution of the

pencilled brushwork on these wares varied considerably,

as seen on two small globular jars in the British Museum

(inv. nos. . - . and . - . ) and a

brush pot in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto (inv.

no. . . ) (see Introduction Fig. ).

The decoration of this group of kraak wine pots, not

always exactly following the moulded pattern, does

not vary significantly. It typically consists of panels of

stylized blossoming peony or chrysanthemum sprays

alternating with panels of auspicious symbols and

tassels pending from ribbons, as seen here. Blossoming

flower sprays in the six panels also occur, as evidenced

in two wine pots (both without covers) in the Topkapi

Saray Museum in Istanbul (inv. nos. / and