Page 134 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1942.9-541 (C-394)
Vase

Qing dynasty, late eighteenth century
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Porcelain with apple-green glaze, 17.7 x 8.8 (7 x 3 /2)
Widener Collection
TECHNICAL NOTES
There is an iridescent cast to the overlying green enamel that is compared to this one. It probably dates from the Kangxi
1
basically dark green but varies in hue as a result of uneven period and has been described as a brush pot. Another
application. The vase is covered by numerous surface scratches. very similar piece of the same size but of perhaps brighter
Some traces of brown wash survive on the unglazed foot. color, described as an early eighteenth-century vase, was
Although the underlying glaze ends relatively neatly above the formerly in the collection of J. M. Hu. What particularly
2
foot, the green enamel flows over the brown wash in some links these two vessels to the National Gallery example is
places. The green enamel at the mouth rim is also noticeably
uneven. The shallow base is covered with a grayish white glaze the rather short, wide-mouthed neck rising out of the
with a medium-size crackle. One long, open crack through the body, a characteristic also seen in an apple-green vase in
enamel and underlying glaze runs from the top of the shoulder the S. C. Tianminlou Collection from the Qianlong peri-
almost to the base; it does not penetrate the vessel's body. od, though the neck of that vase is proportionately longer
and its lower body more curved than either these two ves-
PROVENANCE sels or the National Gallery example. 3
(Duveen Brothers, New York and London); sold 1912 to Peter A. VB
B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheri-
tance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of
appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. NOTES
1. Ceramic Society 1951, 61, no. 209, pi. 30, top row. The illus-
HE SCRATCHES AND LONG CRACK in the vessel's enamel tration is in black and white, but the vase is described as "misty
Tdo not appear to be the result of excessive wear, but green" and looks quite pale.
are more likely the result of the poor quality of the manu- 2. Important Chinese Ceramics from the J. M. Hu Family
facture—a conjecture supported by the careless treatment Collection, sale, Sotheby's, New York, 4 June 1985, lot 31,
of the enamel at the mouth rim. repro. The plate is in color, and the vase is the "bright green" of
A lighter colored apple-green vessel of related form, but the description.
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shorter and with a broader, more pear-shaped belly, can be 3. Tianminlou 1987, i: 154, repro.; 2: 222—223, °- !54> repro.

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