Page 142 - Metropolitan Museum Collection September 2016

913 This elegant vase belongs to a small, highly regarded group of
A RARE PEACHBLOOM-GLAZED vessels made during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. Its well-
‘CHRYSANTHEMUM’ VASE, JUBAN PING balanced form, with trumpet mouth and a band of chrysanthemum
petals around the base, is enhanced by one of the Qing dynasty’s
KANGXI SIX-CHARACTER MARK IN UNDERGLAZE BLUE most interesting and most admired glazes – a copper glaze known
AND OF THE PERIOD (1662-1722) as ‘peachbloom’ in English and by a variety of names in Chinese,
including pingguo hong 蘋果紅 (apple red), jiangdou hong 豇豆紅
The ovoid body is molded with a band of chrysanthemum (bean red), and meiren zui 美人醉 (drunken beauty).
petals above the ring foot, and is surmounted by a tall,
trumpet-form neck. The vase is covered overall in a glaze The peachbloom glaze, which appears to have been developed in
of crushed-strawberry tone suffused with speckles running the Kangxi reign, was applied to a limited number of relatively
thinner on the rim and molded petals. small vessel shapes all of which were intended for use on a scholar’s
8¡ in. (21 cm.) high table. They have traditionally been known as the ba da ma 八大
$700,000-900,000 碼 (Eight Great Numbers), comprised of four elegant vase forms,
including the current vase form, three water pots and a seal-paste
PROVENANCE box. There are in fact four water pot forms, bringing the total to
nine, rather than eight. This may be signifcant, since, although the
Mary Stillman Harkness (1874-1952) Collection. number eight was traditionally regarded as lucky, the number nine
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, is the imperial number, and it has been suggested by some scholars
accessioned in 1950. that these peachbloom vessels were made especially to be given as
清康熙 豇豆紅釉菊瓣瓶 三行六字楷書款 gifts from the Kangxi Emperor to favored members of the court.
來源 The style of the calligraphy used in the reign marks on peachbloom
Mary Stillman Harkness（1874-1952）珍藏。 vessels has led some scholars to suggest that the vessels should date
紐約大都會藝術博物館，入藏於1950年。 to relatively early in the Kangxi reign – AD 1678-1688 – but the
sophistication of both glaze and form, as well as the discovery of
(mark) one of the typical peachbloom vase forms (decorated in underglaze
copper red) with the reign mark of the succeeding Yongzheng
140 reign (AD 1723-1735), has led others to conclude that they were
produced in the latter part of the Kangxi reign.

The form represented by the current vase has been the subject
of much debate in regard to the correct way to describe it. In
his extensive discussion of peachbloom glazed porcelains ‘The
‘Peachbloom’ Wares of the Kangxi period (AD 1662-1722)’
presented to the Oriental Ceramic Society in London in 1999 and
published in Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 64,
1999-2000, pp. 31-50, the British scholar John Ayers quotes Ralph
M. Chait’s insistence that the vase should be described as heban ping
荷瓣瓶 (lotus-petal vase), and Chait’s dismissal of R. L. Hobson’s
description ‘chrysanthemum vase’.

It is interesting to note however that the Palace Museum, Beijing,
describe their peachbloom vase of this form, as juban ping 菊
瓣 瓶 (chrysanthemum petal vase) (see Monochrome Porcelain, The
Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, vol. 37, Hong
Kong, 1999, p. 21, no. 18), as do the Shanghai Museum (Fig. 1) in
their publication Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum
Collection, Shanghai and Hong Kong, 1998, pp. 316-7, no. 204),
while the National Palace Museum, Taipei, describe a similar vase
(Fig. 2) in their collection as laifu ping 萊菔瓶 (turnip shaped vase)
(see Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Ch’ing-Dynasty Monochrome
Porcelains in the National Palace Museum, Taipei, 1981, p. 39, no. 2).

Although the interpretation of the petals around the base of the
vase as lotus petals would allow for Buddhist associations as well
as references to harmony, purity and beauty, the long, slender
shape and great number of the petals around the vase does suggest
that their interpretation as chrysanthemum petals is more likely.