Page 239 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1942.9-645-646 (C-496-497)
Pair of Large Fish Bowls

Qing dynasty, late eighteenth century
Porcelain with overglaze famille verte enamels,
3
497 X 56.0 (l9 /4 X 22 Vs)
Widener Collection
TECHNICAL NOTES
Each interior is covered with a greenish white glaze, with minor
chips in the glaze around the rim. Below the rim of each bowl
is a ring of raised leaf-shaped motifs covered with discolored
paint applied during a restoration campaign before the bowls
entered the National Gallery collection.
Each bowl has a significant number of glaze losses, ranging
l
in size from /2 to 2 inches in diameter. The losses are located
over the exterior surface but are clustered at the widest part of
the vessel, especially among the green rosettes in the back-
ground. In general, the glaze is a poor fit for the body, resulting
in its extensive shivering. Both bowls have undergone conserva-
tion treatment to secure the glaze.

PROVENANCE
(Duveen Brothers, New York and London); sold 1901 to Peter A.
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.
1942.9.645
HIS PAIR OF FISH BOWLS is decorated on the exterior
Twith scholarly symbols and implements—including
scrolls, incense burners in the shapes of archaic bronze
ritual vessels, the qin (lute), weiqi boards, fans, and ruyi
scepters—that are raised in high relief against a ground
of scrolls and flowers. The technique of high relief deco-
ration began in the reign of the Kangxi emperor
(1662-1722). Below the neck and above the foot are raised
horizontal bands of ruyi lappets.
Each bowl entered the National Gallery collection sup-
ported by a fine ormolu tripod stand in the style of
Napoleonic or early Bourbon Restoration, probably dat-
ing from the first third of the nineteenth century. 1
SL

NOTES
i. See 31 May 1984 memo (in NGA curatorial files), which doc-
uments the opinions of Sarah Medlam of Barnard Castle, The
Bowes Museum, County Durham, concerning the mounts.
Douglas Lewis, curator of sculpture and decorative arts, has
agreed with her attribution.

1942.9.646

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