Page 280 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

1942.9.441-442 (C-294-295)

Pair of Vases Mounted as Ewers

Qing dynasty, mid-eighteenth century
Porcelain with light green celadon glaze and
underglaze decoration in white slip;
Mounts: French, gilt bronze, c. 1780-1785,
1942.9.441: (without mount) 37.8 x 22.2 (14% x 9),
n
(with mount) 24.6 x 61.2 (9 /6 x 24 Vs)
5
1942.9.442: (without mount) 39.2 x 23.2 (i5 /s x pVs),
n
(with mount) 61.2 x 24.6 (24 Vs x 9 /i6)
Widener Collection
TECHNICAL NOTES
The glaze line at the base of each is flush with the foot and is The white slip decoration under the glaze is slightly
rough and uneven. There is oxidation of the porcelain body in modeled, and the details are lightly incised. On one side
a thin brown line at the glaze termination. A hole has been cut a flowering plum branch rises from just above the base,
at the center of each of the glazed bases at some time after their curving as it reaches the shoulder. Blossoms and buds
manufacture, and thick red adhesive has been applied around become gradually smaller on the neck, and the spray
the holes and unevenly around the bases just inside the foot. ends in a delicate twig that rises almost to the lip. Variety
Presumably, the holes and the adhesive were for the attachment
of the mounts. There is corresponding adhesive on the bronze and width are added near the base and close to the
mounts. There are superficial scratches at the mouth, top of the branch by a single small bamboo spray on one side and
neck, and horizontally down one side of the body, where the a daisylike flower on the other. On the opposite side of
mounts make contact. the body, a small flowering plum spray decorates the
shoulder, and a single small insect in flight is shown on
PROVENANCE the neck. It is a design of simplicity and naturalism.
marquis de Montault, Chateau de la Terte, Trescuel, L'Aigle, As ewers, the porcelains have been mounted as a pair—
Normandy. Collection of Charles J. Wertheimer, London. that is, the decoration of each vase is toward the viewer
(Duveen Brothers, New York and London); sold 1912 to Peter A. when pouring lips are facing.
B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheri- JK
tance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of
appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.
NOTES
EXHIBITED
Mounted Chinese Porcelains, The Frick Collection, New York; 1. The metalwork mounts are catalogued separately in a forth-
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; coming volume in this series, Decorative Arts, Part III.
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, 1986-1987, no. 39. 2. A converted baluster vase mounted as a ewer in the J. Paul
Getty Museum, Malibu, with underglaze white slip decoration
enhanced by painting in underglaze blue and underglaze copper
ACH VASE is MOUNTED on a raised gilt-bronze foot and red, represents a related type of eighteenth-century Chinese
E is transformed into a ewer by means of a tall handle ceramic decoration (ace. no. 78.DE.9: Watson 1980, no. 28,
and an extending pouring lip, also in gilt bronze. 1 repro.). Another, a mounted vase with flowering branches in
A bulbous body contracts to a slender, tall neck that white slip under a celadon glaze, is in the Louvre, Paris:
ends in a plain mouth-rim. The foot, not visible when Lunsingh Scheurleer 1980, 97, fig. 343. It is approximately the
mounted, is unglazed, rounded, and beveled to a concave same size as the National Gallery ewers but is of different shape,
glazed base. This is a typical eighteenth-century Chinese possibly because it may have been cut down. Much of the deco-
ceramic shape, full but with gentle curves. The French ration is obscured by the metalwork, but the visible parts are
eighteenth-century metalwork adds a flamboyance for- almost the same as the flowering plum branches on the National
eign to the porcelain work. 2 Gallery pieces. It probably was made at the same time and by the
same factory, possibly as part of a set.
On both vases, the glaze is fine, smooth, translucent
light green celadon of medium luster. The whiteness of
the porcelain body is apparent on the foot-ring. The REFERENCES
glaze extends into the inside of the vessel and to the base. 1980 Lunsingh Scheurleer: 97, fig. 344.

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