Page 26 - Yuan Dynasty Ceramics

Chapter 07 (pp. 330-385)_Layout 1 7/7/10 5:42 PM Page 355

the Yuan dynasty), the wares decorated with three-,
four-, and five-claw dragons were restricted to the use
of nobles, princes, and the emperor, respectively. 93 A
few large, covered blue and white jars were found at
Gao’an with three-claw dragons (Fig. 7.33). A few four-
claw dragon jars were also found at this site. The use of
thin lines to paint the dragons and ample unpainted
space seen on the Gao’an jars are reminiscent of fea-
tures on blue and white weiqi jars excavated at Doufu-
long in Jingdezhen.
Also unearthed at the site were nine extremely fine
luan bai (eggshell white) wares, as well as stem cups bear-
ing molded five-claw dragon anhua (secret or hidden)
decorations. Stem cups were a new Yuan ceramic form
used for wine on festive occasions, and naturally accom-
94
panied meiping, or wine bottles. The presence of white
sacrificial ware stem cups, decorated with the emperor’s
exclusive five-claw dragon, makes it likely that this body
of ceramics belonged to a member of the Yuan imperial
family. This cache of valuables was probably buried
sometime between 1341 and 1351, when there were nu-
merous battles between the Chinese Red Turban insur-
gents and the Yuan army around Gao’an.
The Baoding treasure was discovered at Baoding in
7.33. Blue and white covered jar with three-claw dragon and
Hebei province in 1964 while erecting a building. It con- peony decorations, Yuan dynasty, second quarter of the
tained eleven pieces of exquisite Yuan porcelain (Figs. fourteenth century, 47 cm tall. Made at Jingdezhen, and
95
7.34, 7.35, 7.36). Because these ceramics are of excep- recovered in 1980 in Gao’an county. Gao’an County Museum,
Jiangxi Province.
tionally fine quality and have been very well preserved,
they are among the most published and exhibited discov-
eries since the revolution in 1949.
Four of the eleven porcelain pieces are octagonal
faceted blue and white vessels: a pair of meiping (wine bot-
tles), a pear-shaped (yuhuchun) bottle, and a ewer. They are
thus more complicated than the usual Yuan forms of
96
these types. (For more on shapes of Yuan wares, see
Fig. 7.37a–f.) Four pieces are sapphire blue: a meiping
similar to one held by Yangzhou Museum, a yi (spouted
bowl), a stem cup, and a shallow dish of the same form as
one in the Topkapi Palace Museum. The glaze on a wine
cup has a slight jade-green tinge. And a dish with a brack-
eted rim is comparable in quality to benchmark dishes
with the Taixi inscription, datable to 1328–1340.
The most unusual and experimental pieces from the
Baoding treasure, however, are a pair of jars with molded
beading. On these jars, ogival panels of floral open work
7.34. Cup with sapphire blue glaze and gilt decoration of prunus
are brushed with underglaze red and blue. Above and be-
(plum), Yuan dynasty, fourteenth century, 4 cm tall, 8.1 cm
low, contrasting zones are painted in cobalt blue (see Fig. mouth diameter. From Jingdezhen, recovered in 1964 from
7.36). These imperial-quality jars decorated with under- Baoding, Hebei province. Hebei Provincial Museum.
glaze blue and red have counterparts made at
Jingdezhen’s private kilns as furnishings for the tomb of

Yuan Dynasty Ceramics 355