Page 145 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1942.9-547 (C-400)
Large Vase

Qing dynasty, late eighteenth/nineteenth century
1
Porcelain with turquoise glaze, 45.7 x 23.5 (18 x 9 A)
Widener Collection
TECHNICAL NOTES
This vase rises from a globular lower section to the straight,
cylindrical neck, with a slight thickening around the lip. The
vessel was made in two parts and luted together at the base of
the neck. The porcelain paste is white, its exterior covered with
a transparent turquoise glaze that has a very fine crackle pattern.
The glaze has a slightly mottled surface and is unevenly applied
in some areas. The interior is covered with a colorless glaze. The
unglazed foot-ring is beveled, with a slight groove around the
exterior. The recessed base, which has a hairline crack, is covered
with a colorless glaze.

PROVENANCE
J. Pierpont Morgan [1837-1913], New York. (Duveen Brothers,
New York and London); sold 1915 to Peter A. B. Widener,
Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from
Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appoint-
ment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

HIS TALL, ELEGANT VASE is covered with a turquoise
Tmonochrome glaze that was first introduced into
China from Persia during the Yuan dynasty in the
1
fourteenth century. In West Asia the glaze—an alkaline
colored with copper oxide—had been used for several
centuries. In the late fifteenth century it appeared again
in China after a hiatus of about a century, and was used
with greater frequency in the late seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.
SL

NOTES
i. Medley 1976,128, 212-213.

REFERENCES
1904 Morgan: 2: 78, no. 1303, pi. 112.

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