Page 34 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
717
A SMALL GE-TYPE WASHER
MING DYNASTY (1368-1644)
Of shallow square form, the washer is covered in a thick greyish-cream glaze
sufused with a network of ‘iron’ crackle interspersed with light brown crackles.
3Ω in. (8.8 cm.) wide

$7,000-9,000

Ge ware, along with Guan, Ru, Ding and Jun, comprise the ‘Five Great
Wares of the Song Dynasty’. The problems of distinguishing the two
crackled wares, Guan, and Ge, were discussed at length during a
conference held at the Shanghai Museum in 1992, and while no unanimity
of opinion was reached, it was generally thought that those wares with a
jinsi tiexian (‘gold thread and iron wire’) crackle should be designated Ge.
See R. Scott, “Guan or Ge Ware?”, Oriental Art, Summer 1993, pp. 12-23.
Recent archaeological researchers suggest that Ge wares may have been
made at kilns in Chuzhou, nearer to the center of Longquan production, or
just outside the walls of the Southern Song palace at Hangzhou. Scholars
agree that Ge wares display the qualities that might be expected of vessels
intended for imperial appreciation.
Yuan and Ming dynasty square-form Ge washers are very rare. A Ge
cinquefoil brush washer dated to the Yuan-Ming dynasty was sold at
Christie’s Hong Kong, 27 November 2013, lot 3279. Another washer, but of
circular shape and dated to the Yuan dynasty, 14th century, is in the Qing
Court Collection, and is published in the National Palace Museum, Precious
as the Morning Star: 12th- 14th Century Celadons in the Qing Court Collection,
p. 275, no. IV-34.
(base)
明 哥釉小方洗

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