Page 21 - Sotheby's NYC September 21 2022 Important Chinese Art

205

PROPERTY FROM AN AMERICAN PRIVATE COLLECTION The form of these jars derives from Longquan celadon wares
A RARE ‘CLAIR-DE-LUNE’-GLAZED ‘HUNDRED of the 14th century, which were made with covers in the
RIB’ JAR form of a lotus leaf, such as one from the collection of the
Ottoman sultans and now in the Topkapi Saray Museum,
QING DYNASTY, KANGXI PERIOD Istanbul, included in Regina Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the
Width 10¼ in., 26 cm Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, vol. I, London, 1986, pl. 213;
and another, in the Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, published
PROVENANCE in the Illustrated Catalogue of Tokyo National Museum.
Chinese Ceramics II, Tokyo, 1990, cat. no. 14.
Offered at Sotheby’s New York, 6th December 1989, lot 192.
Michael B. Weisbrod, Inc., New York, 1990. In the later Qing period, jars of this type may have been
described as ‘Ru-glazed’, and the ribs referred to as
EXHIBITED ‘hundred folds’ (baizhe). According to the inventory of the
Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, 1982-1989 (on Qing imperial court archives, dated to the twelfth month
loan). of the eleventh year of the Guangxu period (in accordance
From Kilns of Kings and Commoners, Michael B. Weisbrod, with 1885), Ru you ci baizhe xiao yugang yi kou or ‘a small
Ru-glazed hundred-fold fish jar’ was stored in the porcelain
Inc., New York, 1990, cat. no. 46.
quarter of Fangyuanju (Residence of the Aromatic Garden) in
The present jar is remarkable for its precisely potted large the Imperial Summer Palace at Chengde.
form which has been covered in a luminous clair-de-lune
glaze. This high-fired glaze, with a cobalt content of about $ 150,000-250,000
1%, was first produced by the imperial kilns in Jingdezhen
during the Kangxi Emperor’s reign. Known in the West by the
19th-century French connoisseurs’ term clair-de-lune (‘moon 清康熙 天藍釉百條缸
light’), and in China as tianlan (‘sky blue’), it was one of the
most successful monochrome glazes created in Jingdezhen 來源
during the Kangxi reign, its soft hue reserved exclusively for 上拍於紐約蘇富比1989年12月6日，編號192
imperial porcelains. The color remained popular throughout Michael B. Weisbrod, Inc.，紐約，1990年
the Qing dynasty, but after the Kangxi period lost its delicate
tone. A closely related jar from the Edward T. Chow Collection 展覽
was sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 25th November 1980, 印第安納波利斯藝術博物館，印第安納波利斯，1982
lot 73; and another from the J.M. Hu Collection, illustrated 至1989年 (借展)
in Qing Imperial Monochromes. The Zande Lou Collection,
Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, 2005, pl. 32, was sold in our 《From Kilns of Kings and Commoners》，Michael B.
Hong Kong rooms, 4th June 1985, lot 29. See also one sold in Weisbrod, Inc.，紐約，1990年，編號46
our London rooms, 10th July 1979, lot 203, and again in these
rooms, 20th May 1980, lot 98; two further jars sold in these
rooms, one from the collection of William L. Parker, 11th May
1978, lot 212, and the other, 4th December 1984, lot 345; and
two recently sold in our Hong Kong rooms, 5th April 2017, lot
1111 and 3rd April 2019, lot 3655.

18 SOTHEBY’S COMPLETE CATALOGUING AVAILABLE AT SOTHEBYS.COM/N11074 19