Page 206 - Fine Chinese Ceramics and Works of Art II

THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE ASIAN COLLECTOR
2345
AN EXTREMELY RARE QINGBAI ARCHAISTIC HU-FORM VASE
SOUTHERN SONG DYNASTY (1127-1279)
The pear-shaped body is raised on a slightly splayed foot carved with
zoomorphic scroll, and the sides are carved as quadrants of stylized
dragon and phoenix scroll framed by lines formed by their linear
bodies, beneath a band of archaistic scroll on the shoulder, which is
interrupted by a pair of phoenix-form handles that fank the neck
carved with triangular lappets, all under a thin glaze of aquamarine
tone.
10æ in. (17.5 cm.) high, box
$80,000-120,000
PROVENANCE:
Christie’s Hong Kong, 7 June 2003, lot 635.
LITERATURE:
Gems of Chinese Art: Selections of Ceramics and Bronzes from the Tsui Art
Foundation, Hong Kong, 1992, no. 60.
This qingbai vase’s shape and decoration were inspired by a Western Zhou
bronze, ritual hu wine vessel that likely was made in the late 9th or early
8th century BC. Like the bronze on which it is based, this porcelain vase
claims a pear shape, its surface divided into three decorative registers
and its elaborate handles projecting outward and terminating in phoenix
heads. (A pair of closely related bronze hu vessels, each with a cover, is in
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988.20.4a,b–5a,b. Another
hu vessel, formerly in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San
Francisco and lacking a cover, was sold at Christie’s New York, 19 March
2009, lot 526.) In both bronze and porcelain vessels, strapwork bands
divide each side of the bulging body into quadrants, each of which boasts
two highly stylized, C-form creatures with a small head at each end of the
“C” form. Two of the heads within each quadrant sport beaks, the other
two muzzles. The diamond-shaped element that appears at the center of
this vase’s principal register of decoration recalls the small relief pyramid
that marks the intersection of the horizontal and vertical strapwork bands
on the related bronzes. Probably highly stylized zoömorphs, horizontally
oriented C-forms occupy the narrow register that encircles the shoulder
on both bronze and porcelain vessels. Such abstract C-forms fnd distant
antecedents in the decorative scheme of the 10th-century BC Yan Ho Yu
food vessel, which was discovered in 1955 and now is in the Historical
Museum, Beijing. (See: Wen Fong, ed., The Great Bronze Age of China:
An Exhibition from the People’s Republic of China, New York: Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 1980, p. 227, no. 53.) Although typically undecorated in
most Western Zhou bronze hu vessels, the uppermost register on a few
such bronzes boasts triangular forms like those on this porcelain vase. Such
triangles ultimately derive from the similar forms that frequently occupy
the uppermost register of Shang-dynasty bronzes with faring lips, such
as the zun wine vessel in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
43.25.1, and the similar zun vessel from the Sze Yuan Tang Collection sold
at Christie’s New York, 16 September 2010, lot 813. Such triangular forms
also appear on the Shang-dynasty Xi Jia wine vessel, which was recovered
in 1968 and now is in the collection of the Henan Provincial Museum,
Zhengzhou. (See: Wen Fong, ed., The Great Bronze Age of China: An
Exhibition from the People’s Republic of China, cat. no. 26, illustrated on p.
158.) Original to this qingbai vase, the small perforation at the base of each
handle most likely permitted a free-turning ring, perhaps of metal, to be
suspended from each handle.
204
The potters who designed and created this superb qingbai vase likely
drew inspiration not from actual bronze vessels but from images in the
woodblock-printed catalogues compiled and published during the Northern
Song period. In fact, the Xuanhe Bogu Tu (Illustrated Catalogue of Antique
Objects in the Xuanhe Collection), which was compiled by Wang Fu (1079-
1126) and completed in 1123, features a line drawing of a bronze hu vessel
that is virtually identical to the present qingbai vase, from the shape and
decoration to the phoenix-headed handles. (See: Wang Fu, Xuanhe Bogu
Tu [Illustrated Catalogue of Antique Objects in the Xuanhe Collection],
completed in 1123; present reprint, Chongqing, 2010, p. 204, (Fig. 1)
Beginning late in the Northern Song period (960–1127) and continuing
through the Southern Song (1127–1279) and into succeeding eras,
potters at many Chinese kilns fashioned incense burners and fower vases
in the form of ancient Chinese bronze ritual vessels and ceremonial jade
implements.
The association of later ceramics with Bronze Age antiquities came about as
the Imperial Court, and then the literati, began to collect ancient bronzes
and jades. Vessels in antique shapes offered a new and stylish alternative to
the previously popular vessels whose shapes had been inspired by blossoms,
melons, calabash gourds, and other naturally occurring forms. In addition,
on rare occasions, when learned friends of taste and sophistication would
gather for an afternoon of poetry, painting, and collection viewing, a
collector might press several of his collected antiquities into service as vases
and censers, using an ancient bronze gu, zun, or hu wine vessel as a fower
vase, for example, and an ancient bronze ding or liding cooking vessel or
a gui food-serving vessel as a censer. The collectors and their guests knew
that in antiquity such bronzes were used as vessels for food and wine in
funerary ceremonies, but they nevertheless repurposed them to serve their
own needs and tastes. Realizing that too frequent use would damage, or
even ruin, their collected antiquities, however, such collectors began to rely
on related pieces made in ceramic ware, thereby giving rise to the tradition
of censers and vases in the shape of ancient bronzes.
The frst such archaizing vessels were made at the Ding and Ru kilns late in
the Northern Song period, with the Yaozhou kilns quickly following their
example. In the Southern Song period, many kilns in Zhejiang and Jiangxi
province followed suit, including those at Jingdezhen, in northeastern
Jiangxi province, where this qingbai vase was made.
Robert D. Mowry,
Alan J. Dworsky Curator of Chinese Art Emeritus, Harvard Art Museums,
and Senior Consultant, Christie’s
南宋 青白釉仿古蟠夔紋鳳耳壺
Fig. 1. Bronze hu, Shang dynasty. After Wang Fu, Xuanhe
bogu tulu, completed in 1123, vol. 12, no. 13.