Page 267 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1972.43-10 (C-565)
Vase

Qing dynasty, probably Yongzheng or early Qianlong period
(1725-1750)
Porcelain with underglaze blue decoration over white slip,
5
13.8x8.5 (5^i6X3 /i 6 )
Harry G. Steele Collection, Gift of Grace C. Steele

TECHNICAL NOTES
This vase is finely potted, with thin walls. The splayed foot-ring
is narrow and beveled, revealing a dense white paste, and the
base is recessed and glazed. There are two small repaired chips
on the lip.

PROVENANCE
Harry G. Steele [1881-1941], Pasadena; his widow, Grace C. Steele.

HE COMBINATION OF A TRANSLUCENT BODY and a mottled
T"orange-skin" glaze surface suggests that this is a
porcelain with a huashi, or "soft paste," slip under the
1
glaze. This type of ware was first produced at Jingdezhen
in the early eighteenth century and was described in a
letter by the French Jesuit Pere d'Entrecolles in 1722. 2
The highly accomplished painting is executed in thin
outlines, with texturing in short brushstrokes and shad-
ing in varying tonalities of blue. The washes range from
very pale to opaque blue. Around the neck is a band of
ascending leaves enclosed by parallel lines. The main
decoration on the lower surface consists of a garden
scene with two phoenixes, a magnolia tree, and an orna-
3
mental Taihu rock. Behind the birds are two flowering
bushes, a peony, and a camellia. On the other side of the
vase are two butterflies.
SL

NOTES
1. Van Oort and Kater 1982,114. As pointed out in Medley 1976,
275n. 15, the term steatitic for Chinese "soft paste" porcelain is a
misnomer. See also Jenyns 1951, 30-31.
2. Van Oort and Kater 1982,114.
3. On Taihu rocks, see Murck and Fong 1980, 51-57.

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