Page 104 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

this pair of vases are as carefully manufactured and elegant acquired from Duveen, who had obtained it from Morgan. In
as any of the prescribed types. 4 Morgan 1904-1911, 2: 82, no. 1340, this piece is said to have come
Because these vases have identical measurements and from the imperial collection. The records, however, do not make
differ only in their minor glaze flaws, it has proven all but clear which vase is which. A letter dated i November 1934 from
impossible to identify which one is described in the Duveen Brothers concerning the Morgan piece (in NGA curato-
of the
Morgan catalogue, and which one was acquired from rial files), states that Yan Li San might have been a member second
worked
on
noting
that
imperial
Clarke, who
family,
the
Thomas Clarke, who worked on the second volume of volume of the Morgan collection, in which this vessel is cata-
the Morgan collection in which one of these two is logued, "may have had means of identifying Yan Li San as a mem-
briefly described. Among the other pale blue vessels in ber of the imperial family, but omitted to mention the name in
the National Gallery collection, these vases most resem- the catalogue." This suggests that Duveen Brothers had the
ble a Kangxi example, 1942.9.487. However, their shoul- impression that both vases had their origin in the same figure, a
ders are lower set and more pronounced, more closely member of the imperial family. However, a plausible candidate as
approximating Yongzheng vases in the collection of the the former owner of at least one, if not both, of these vases is the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the high official of Mongol background, Yang Lishan (c. 1900), who
National Palace Museum, Taiwan. 5 Though 1942.9.487 served in the Imperial Household Department (Neiwu Fu). This
has a slightly darker pale blue glaze than that seen on might account for imperial associations surrounding the Morgan
many other Kangxi pieces of this type, in these bottle vase if indeed its origin was also with him. Eventually Yang
of the
a president
became
Board of Revenue (Hubu
Shangshu),
vases the blue is a more distinct soft blue very close to which could have been interpreted as "treasurer of the Chinese
that called tian Ian, "sky blue," in the description of the empire." His biography is in Zhao et al. 1981,18 juan 466, p. 12,763.
6
previously mentioned Yongzheng vase in Taiwan. It is a Yang was known for what were thought to be proforeign views,
shade that seems to have been preferred in the and was executed n August 1900 after protesting against the
Yongzheng period, and the very refined quality of the encouragement of the antiforeign Boxers. Only a few days later
paste is also typical of ceramics of this period. 7 the Allied Expeditionary Forces entered Beijing. Perhaps these
The vessel in Taiwan is close in shape to those in the vases were among the booty reportedly taken from Yang's house
National Gallery pair, but its lower body is less ovoid or by the French missionary Bishop Alphonse Favier (1837—1905),
pearlike, more like the kind of vase usually called "mal- according to Compilation Group 1976, 93, and then dispersed,
let-shaped." It has a more angular, squat profile, its long, eventually reaching Thomas B. Clarke in the United States along
narrow neck abruptly spreading out into the shoulder with the somewhat garbled a name and occupation of their origi-
collector, Clarke imported
and
owner.
sold
Besides being
nal
!
rather than tapering outward gracefully. At 11.4 cm (4 /2 Chinese porcelains, and was familiar with Pere Favier's collec-
in.) in height, it is significantly smaller. Its reignmark is tion, as shown in a note in Clarke and Warren 1902, n.
written in standard (kaishu) rather than seal (zhuanshu) 2. Morgan 1904-1911, 2: 82, no. 1340.
script. Closer, perhaps, to the National Gallery pair is the
bottle vase in New York, which has the same, more slop- 3. See note 18 in the essay on Chinese ceramic techniques for a
description of the eight prescribed shapes described
ing shoulder. It is comparable to them in size and color, by Chait.
and has a Yongzheng reignmark written in seal script. 8
VB 4. On the prescribed peachbloom types, see the essay on
Chinese ceramic techniques, and Chait 1957, 130-131. Some
peachbloom types, such as the vase decorated with a coiled
NOTES dragon and the covered box for seal color, were apparently not
i. The curatorial records of the National Gallery of Art discuss made in pale blue glaze. Other fine pale blue vessels in "non-
1942.9.485 and 1942.9.486 together, and note that one was prescribed" shapes at the National Gallery are the single vase of
acquired from Clarke, who reportedly obtained it from "Yan-li similar shape (1942.9.487) and four meiping-shaped vases
San, China, treasurer of Chinese empire," while the other was (1941.9.495-498). Further examples are Ayers 1968-1974, 3: no.

88 D E C O R A T I V E A R T S