Page 92 - Chinese Works of Art Chritie's Mar. 22-23 2018

Washington, D.C., 1983, no. 62), and on a bronze jian 鑑 bowl in the Freer found, for instance, in typical Longquan celadon glazes of the Southern
Gallery of Art (illustrated by T. Lawton, Chinese Art of the Warring States Song and Yuan dynasties. The new celadon glaze for porcelain was
period – Change and Continuity, 480-222 B.C., Washington, D.C., 1982, no. further modifed in the Yongzheng period to produce an even more fnely
2). Interestingly, this style of decoration can also be seen on a very fne textured and slightly bluer pale celadon glaze, and small adjustments
Eastern Zhou openwork cast gold sword hilt in the collection of the British continued to be made in the Qianlong reign. This range of delicate Qing
Museum, London (illustrated in Gilded Dragons – Buried Treasures from dynasty celadon glazes has been much admired by Chinese connoisseurs,
China’s golden Ages, London, 1999, p. 31, Fig. 9a). and individual glazes have been given names such as douqing (豆青 bean
green) and dongqing (東青 eastern green) in the Kangxi reign, dongqing (冬
The application of archaic bronze inspired decoration to Qianlong 青 winter green) and fenqing (粉青 soft green) in the Yongzheng reign.
porcelain vessels can also be seen amongst vases decorated in underglaze
cobalt blue, but these rarely restrict themselves to the original bronze The glaze used on the current vase is that known as fenqing (soft-green).
format. A blue and white Qianlong tianqiuping, which was sold by In the Qianlong reign these celadon glazes were most efectively applied
Christie’s Hong Kong in May 1994, Lot 661, had a design of angular to porcelain vessels with low relief surface decoration, which had become
archaistic dragons, but these had been adapted to allow them to be somewhat bolder and more formal in the Qianlong reign. When the relief
combined with a lotus scroll. A similar design appears on a piece of woven decoration was elaborate, but well-modulated, and crisp, as on the current
silk in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York (illustrated vase, it was highlighted by the delicate translucent glaze pooling in the
by R. Scott in ‘Decorative Links between Porcelain and Silk in the Qing deeper recesses to give a darker colour, and running thin of the higher
Period’, Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, Vol.58, 1993-1994, parts of the design to give a lighter tone – providing a subtle contrast
p. 71, Fig. 7). The Qianlong porcelains which have designs that most of colour tones, thereby creating a pleasing dichromatic efect, while
closely mirrors that on ancient bronzes are usually those with low relief accentuating the dense archaistic design.
decoration covered with a pale celadon glaze, as in the case of the current
vase. A related group, which bears decoration inspired by Western Zhou The production of ceramics in ancient bronze style was seen as early
bronzes, is represented by the vase with sharp shoulders and tapering as the Song dynasty, for example in the case of the Northern Song Ru
body sold by Christie’s New York in March 2011, lot 1112. A pale celadon- wares and Southern Song Guan wares in bronze lian 奩censer form (see
glazed Qianlong tianqiuping from the Tsui Collection (illustrated in The R. Scott, ‘Song Dynasty Wares in the David Foundation in the Light of the
Tsui Museum of Art – Chinese Ceramics IV – Qing Dynasty, Hong Kong, Laohudong Excavations’, Song Ceramics – Art History, Archaeology and
1995, no. 35) is also decorated in low relief in ancient bronze style, but Technology, Colloquies on Art & Archaeology in Asia No. 22, London, 2004,
the motifs have been further adapted for application to a porcelain vessel. pp. 158-9). The idea of gaogu
Pale celadon glaze was also applied to the reticulated section designed in 高古 – excellent antiquity - was respected by Song dynasty scholars
archaic style, similar and philosophers and became an important factor in literati taste, and
to that seen on the current vase, of an elaborate Qianlong fencai was refected in the design of objects made for the Song elite. This
粉彩 vase in the collection of the Palace Museum Beijing, illustrated in archaism in ceramics and other media continued and grew throughout
Kangxi Yongzheng Qianlong – Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum the succeeding periods until the Qianlong Emperor even has some of his
Collection, Beijing, 1989, p. 439, no. 121. pieces inscribed fanggu 仿古 – copying the ancient. The British scholar
Craig Clunas has noted that the ‘interaction with the past is one of the
The delicate celadon glaze seen on the current vase and related wares distinctive modes of intellectual and imaginative endeavour in traditional
was developed at the imperial kilns in the 18th century. At that time the Chinese culture’ (C. Clunas, Superfuous Things, Cambridge, 1991, p. 91).
Jingdezhen imperial kilns devoted considerable research and development Perhaps the term guya 古雅 – antique elegance – is the most appropriate
to the production of fne celadon glazes applied to a white porcelain to describe the current vase. This phrase had long been in use, but was
body. Although celadon-type glazes, coloured with small quantities of revived and reinterpreted by the scholar Wang Guowei (王國維 1877-1927)
iron, were applied to porcelain bodies at the Jingdezhen imperial kilns in in his essay ‘Guya zhi zai meixue shang zhi wezhi’ published in the frst
the early Ming period, these were further developed under the three great decade of the 20th century. While diferentiating it from art which is
Qing Emperors. The potters working for the Kangxi Emperor perfected derived from nature, Wang regarded the skilful application of guya as equal
a particularly delicate version over a very white (low iron) porcelain body. to the application of innovative genius.
This celadon glaze was coloured using only about half the amount of iron

90