Page 120 - 2021 March 18 to 19th, Important Chinese Works of Art, Christie's New York City

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, CALIFORNIA
853
A VERY RARE SMALL GE CENSER Ge ware, along with Guan, Ru, Ding and Jun, comprise the ‘five famous
SOUTHERN SONG-YUAN DYNASTY, 12TH-14TH CENTURY wares of the Song dynasty’. The issues of distinguishing the two crackled
The censer has a compressed globular body raised on a short foot and is Southern wares, Guan and Ge ware, were discussed at length during a
flanked by a pair of stylized fish-form handles, covered overall in a thick three-day conference held at the Shanghai Museum in October 1992, and
greyish-cream glaze with a network of 'iron' crackle suffused with a tighter while no unanimity of opinion was reached, it was generally thought that
network of reddish-gold-tone crackle. those wares with a double jinsi tiexian (‘gold thread and iron wire’) crackle
should be designated ‘Ge’ (R. Scott, “Guan or Ge Ware?”, Oriental Art,
5¬ in. (14.3 cm.) wide across handles
Summer 1993, pp. 12-23).
$100,000-150,000
This small censer exhibits the fine qualities of Ge ware, with thin gold
and red crackles woven in a web across the surface. Examples of Ge
PROVENANCE:
F. C. Harrison (1863-1938) Collection (according to label). censers of related shape with fish-form handles can be found in museum
Peter Boode (d. circa 1972), London (according to label). collections such as three in the National Palace Museum, Taipei,
Acquired in London, 1960s, and thence by descent to the present owner. illustrated in Precious as the Morning Star: 12th-14th Century Celadons in
the Qing Court Collection, Taipei, 2016, pp. 232-239, nos. IV-16, IV-17, IV-
EXHIBITED: 18, as well as three in the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Selection
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, December 1903 (according to label). of Ge Ware, The Palace Museum Collection and Archeological Discoveries,
Beijing, 2017, pp. 52-57, nos. 16-18. Also see one in the Percival David
Collection, illustrated in Catalogue of the International Exhibition of
南宋/元 哥窯簋式小爐
Chinese Art, London, 1935, pp. 65 and 84, no. 855. Like the present
來源: censer, which has five spur marks on the interior, many of these similar
F.C. Harrison (1863-1938) 珍藏 (據標簽)。 examples include between four to six spur marks on the interior.
Peter Boode ( 1972前後逝世), 倫敦 (據標簽)。
Ge and Guan wares were not only appreciated in their own era, but have
於1960年代購自倫敦, 後家族傳承至現藏家。
been treasured by Chinese emperors of succeeding dynasties, as well
展覽: as by less exalted collectors right up to the present day. The high regard
牛津, 阿什莫林博物館 , 1903年12月 (據標簽)。 in which such pieces were held by the Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong
(1736-1795), for instance, is demonstrated by the text of some of the
inscriptions which were applied on both Ge and Guan wares in the Qing
imperial collection. For instance, both the example in the Percival David
Collection and no. 17 in the Palace Museum, Beijing, cited above, include
later imperial inscriptions on the base that laud the glaze and texture of
these monochrome wares. In “Ode to a Ge Ware Censer,” the Qianlong
Emperor concludes that such Ge censers with fish-form handles were
“inspired by admirations toward the fish” (Precious as the Morning Star:
12th-14th Century Celadons in the Qing Court Collection, Taipei, 2016,
p. 239).

(base) (interior)