Page 264 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1972-43-9 (C-564)
Bottle Vase

Qing dynasty, Kangxi period (1662-1722)
Porcelain with underglaze blue decoration,
14.9 X 10.2 (5% X 4)
Harry G. Steele Collection, Gift of Grace C. Steele

INSCRIPTIONS
Spuriously inscribed in standard script around the neck in
underglaze blue in one line of six characters: Da Ming Xuande
nian zhi [made in the Xuande reign of the great Ming dynasty]

TECHNICAL NOTES
As in the stem bowl from the Ming dynasty, 1972.43.5, the
underglaze cobalt oxide pigment has emerged to the glaze sur-
face along the outlines of the decoration. The foot-ring is
smoothly beveled, and the base is recessed and glazed.

PROVENANCE
(Parish-Watson Gallery, New York); sold to Harry G. Steele
[1881-1941], Pasadena; his widow, Grace C. Steele.

HIS BOTTLE VASE REPRESENTS a shape of the late
1
TKangxi period. It is decorated with a dense field of
stylized scrolls that have opaque outlines enclosing mot-
tled blue washes. The low foot is encircled by a narrow
classic scroll.
SL

NOTES
i. For a similar example, see National Palace 1980, pi. 12. For
an example in steatitic porcelain that has been dated to the late
Kangxi or early Yongzheng period, see van Oort and Kater
1982, fig. 5.

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