Page 42 - Yuan Dynasty Ceramics

Chapter 07 (pp. 330-385)_Layout 1 7/7/10 5:42 PM Page 371

Ardebil and Topkapi collections suggests that both were wares are purported to have been created before the
formed over hundreds of years through seizure, gifts of reign of the Wenzong emperor, the dating of these wares
embassies, sacrificial offerings, and presents from court is unreliable; so far there is no definitive evidence of such
members, religious hierarchies, merchants, and guilds. early experimentation with this technique. 184
When one kingdom conquered another, the treasures As mentioned previously, the early Ming collector Cao
of the vanquished were appropriated. One example of Zhao, whose definition of beauty was formed through a
the Ottoman imperial acquisition of Chinese porcelain classical Chinese education and who may have disdained
occurred in 1757–1759 when 3,098 pieces from the col- the ornate Mongol style, initially gave a negative appraisal
lection of the disgraced Esad Pasha were seized under of underglaze painted wares. In the Essential Criteria of An-
the Ottoman custom of “arbitrary death tax without tiquities, Cao Zhao states: “New pieces, the blue (qing se)
limit”(muhallefat). In the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- and multicolored (literally five color, wu se) painted porce-
turies, around twenty thousand pieces of Chinese ceram- lains, are vulgar in taste.” 185 This mention of the new blue
ics from private collections were claimed for the painted ware follows his discussion of Yuan wares with
Ottoman government in this manner. Of special interest the shufu mark, leading to a supposition that multicolor
is the large dish or plate form, which was the most popu- and underglaze blue painted wares were contemporane-
lar shape among Asian Muslims, accounting for nearly ous with, or created a little later than, shufu white wares.
half of the wares found in the Topkapi Palace Museum This literary reference, combined with what has been
alone. The large size of this dish was well suited to the learned from excavations, suggests that “blue” and “mul-
Muslim style of communal dining. 181 ticolor painted” refer to the new types of porcelain pro-
Finds of underglaze blue Yuan wares at fourteenth- duced at Jingdezhen, especially those produced during the
century sites in other parts of Asia and western Africa in- reigns of the Wenzong and Shundi emperors (1328–1332
dicate that many Muslim rulers favored Chinese wares, and 1333–1368, respectively). One often-cited exception
particularly blue and white. One of the earliest docu- to this postulation is an unusual jar made at Jingdezhen
mented Muslim collections of high quality blue and white with a pagoda-shaped lid and decorated with iron (which
was found in the ruins of a palace at Kotla Firuzshah was previously believed by some to be cobalt pigment),
(now Delhi), which was destroyed in 1398. 182 Although fired to a deep grayish black. The major decorative frieze
this is a significant find of Yuan blue and white porcelain on this jar depicts a peony scroll flanked by bands of petal
at a fourteenth-century site outside China, it is hardly suf- panels and ruyi lappets. The piece is reported to have
ficient evidence to give Islamic Asia exclusive credit for come from a 1319 tomb in Huangmei county of Hubei
providing the impetus for the creation of blue and white. province, but its provenance has long been debated. It
Yuan heirloom wares in west Asian collections are com- was not excavated under controlled circumstances and
parable in style and quality to a pair of vases in the Sir was subsequently purchased by the Jiujiang Museum from
Percival David Collection, which were produced at a pri- an antique store. A recent publication cites that it is now
vate kiln, possibly Hutian (Figs. 7.49a and b). This pair of in the Huangmei Museum. 186
vases bears an inscription stating that they were offerings Although not mentioned in the many historical docu-
to a temple by a Chinese family living near Jingdezhen in ments that note the presentation of silks as gifts, it is
the eleventh year of Zhizheng (1351). The Yuan imperial likely that emperors began to give blue and white porce-
kiln ceased operation late in 1351, about twenty years lain to rulers and officials who would appreciate them.
later than the proposed date of the first imperial blue and When the Yuan emperor received envoys from all re-
white found in the Zhushan excavation. gions of his realm as well as countries throughout Asia
Instead, it is believed that the driving force for the cre- and the Middle East, it was traditional to exchange lavish
ation of Yuan blue and white was the desire to create a gifts. It was also considered appropriate for emissaries to
new type of porcelain that would appeal to the aesthetic admire and perhaps even request items desired by their
sensibilities of the Mongols. In an administration staffed sovereigns. It is known that gifts from the Persian Il-
with a diverse blend of people from cultures throughout Khanate were acknowledged by exchanges of other pres-
the Mongol empire, innovative artisans were given the ents, including a substantial amount of gold. From 1330
freedom to experiment. They seem to have produced for to 1333, gifts from Abu Said to the Wenzong emperor in-
a Mongol emperor intensely interested in Chinese culture cluded presents of congratulations, tribute, local prod-
a ware that was soon embraced by the Chinese as well as ucts, precious quartz, daggers, and eighty-eight catties (or
the rest of the world. 183 Although some underglaze blue just under sixty pounds) of the drug theriac, reputed to be

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