Page 126 - 2021 March 18 to 19th, Important Chinese Works of Art, Christie's New York City

An Extremely Rare Kangxi ‘Dragon’ Vase

Rosemary Scott
Senior International Academic Consultant,
Asian Art

This Kangxi vase is exceptionally rare, indeed only three vases of this form red as on the current vase, but with the reign mark of the succeeding
and decoration in international museum collections have been published, Yongzheng reign (AD 1723-35) amongst the Chinese porcelains in the
and no others in private collections appear to be known. A vase of the Victoria and Albert Museum collections (see Ayers, op. cit., p. 41, fig. 17),
same shape and decoration, bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of and another in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, formerly in
Art, New York, by Mary Clark Thompson in 1923, is illustrated by Suzanne the Friedsam Collection, with a Yongzheng mark, and similar design
G. Valenstein in A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1989, p. 22, (although the waves and clouds are painted rather than carved) – see
fig. 211. (Fig. 1) A further vase of the same shape and decoration, formerly Oriental Ceramics, The World’s Great Collections, vol. 11, Tokyo, 1982,
in the collection of J. P. Morgan, is in the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati colour plate 30 - has led some scholars to conclude that the peach-bloom
(accession number: 1931.135), and is illustrated in The Taft Museum, vessels, and by extension the current vase, are more likely to have been
Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art, New York, 1995, p. 595. (Fig. 2) A produced in the latter years of the Kangxi reign. The same vase form
further similar Kangxi vase is in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, and is with similar dragon design – albeit in low relief rather than painted –
illustrated by S. W. Bushell in Oriental Ceramic Art Illustrated by Examples also appears amongst the fine celadon-glazed porcelains of the Kangxi
from the Collection of W. T. Walters, 1896 (1981 edition), fig. 194. (Fig. 3) reign. Two such celadon vases preserved in the collection of the Palace
Museum, Beijing, are illustrated by Geng Baochang (ed.), in Gugong
The elegant form of the current vase is known in Chinese as sanxianping Bowuyuan cang Qingdai yuyao ciqi (Qing Porcelains from the Imperial
‘three string vase’ – a reference to the three fine raised lines which encircle Kilns Preserved in the Palace Museum), Beijing, 2005, vol. 1, pls. 112 and
the lower part of the neck. Another name sometimes applied to this form 113, while a similar vase was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong on 29 May
is laifuping ‘radish vase’, which is a reference to the vessel’s elongated 2009, lot 1819.
tapering shape. This form is relatively rare amongst Kangxi porcelains, and
is usually associated with the prestigious forms known as the ba da ma Interestingly, very similar three-clawed dragons, painted in underglaze
‘Eight Great Numbers’, which were made with peach-bloom glaze for the copper red against a white background, appear on another vase form
scholar’s table in the Kangxi reign. As the British scholar John Ayers has in the Kangxi reign. This vase shape has a long columnar neck and
discussed in ‘The Peachbloom Wares of the Kangxi Period (1662-1722)’, quite sharply angled shoulders, while the red dragon is depicted on the
Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 1999-2000, vol. 64, pp. 31-50, upper part of the shoulders and the lower part of the neck. Two of these
there are in fact a total number of nine forms in this peach-bloom group, long-necked vases were in the collection of Richard Bennett (b. 1849) of
rather than eight. This may be significant, since, although the number Thornby Hall in Northampton before entering the collection of J. Insley
eight was traditionally regarded as lucky, the number nine is the imperial Blair (1870-1939). They were illustrated in The J. Insley Blair Collection of
number, and it has been suggested by some scholars that these peach- Chinese Porcelain, Tuxedo Park, New York, 1925, pl. 1, middle row, nos. 2
bloom vessels were made especially to be given as gifts from the Kangxi and 4. One was sold by Christie’s Hong Kong on 28 November 2012, lot
Emperor to favoured members of the court. The style of the calligraphy 2117.
used in the reign marks on peach-bloom vessels has led some scholars
to suggest that the vessels should date to relatively early in the Kangxi The link between the current vase and these long-necked vases is
reign, and Professor Peter K. Lam has further suggested that both the significant, since the latter have a further link with Kangxi peach-bloom
form, and the dragon design on pieces such as the current vessel, were vessels. The proportions and profile of these long-necked vases are
developed around 1678-1688, under the influence of the acclaimed painter unusual in the Kangxi reign, but amongst the ba da ma peach-bloom
and calligrapher Liu Yuan (c. 1638-c. 1685). The Qing shi gao ‘Manuscript vessels is a vase of this shape and approximately the same size. While
of Qing History’, published in the Republican period, notes that Liu Yuan there is no underglaze painting on the peach-bloom vessel, this is the
provided several hundred designs for imperial porcelain following the only da ba ma peach-bloom form to have a modelled dragon applied to its
reopening of the imperial kiln complex in the early 1680s. The Zaiyuan exterior. In this case the modelled dragon is three-clawed and is of similar
zazhi, which was written by Liu Tingji, a contemporary of Liu Yuan, also type to the dragons painted in underglaze red on both the long-necked
noted that the latter designed many three-dimensional scholar’s objects and ‘three-string’ vases. The dragon on the peach-bloom vases is glazed
for the imperial household. green. One of these ‘dragon’ peach-bloom vases is in the collection of the
Metropolitan Museum, New York. It had formerly been in the collection
The close link with the imperial household is clear, however, the of Thomas Benedict Clarke, who sold it to Benjamin Altman in 1903.
sophistication of both glaze and form, as well as the discovery of a vase Altman in turn bequeathed the vase to the Metropolitan Museum of Art
of similar form and with similar dragon decorated in underglaze copper at his death in 1913. The vase is illustrated by Suzanne G. Valenstein, op.
cit., p. 237, fig. 232; and by Denise Patry Leidy in How to Read Chinese
Ceramics, New York, 2015, p. 121, fig. 35.1.