Page 99 - 2019 October Important Chinese Art Sotheby's Hong Kong

This exceptionally rare flask exudes an enigmatic elegance Crackled wares of the Song dynasty feature in Ming texts,
in its usual combination of an iconic form and glaze. Deeply including Cao Zhao’s Gegu Yaolun [Essential criteria of
rooted in imperial wares of the Song (960-1279) and early antiquities], from 1388, the most influential guidebook on the
Ming (1368-1644) dynasties, it is probably a unique piece connoisseurship of artefacts. The serendipitous character
created upon a specific order and quite unlike the majority of of the crackled glaze evoked nature and its unpredictability
its contemporaneous wares. and thus became a favourite among scholar officials. It is
in the Ming dynasty that poetic remarks about this glaze
The most striking aspect of this flask is its unctuous glaze
that varies in tone from a pale white to a brownish hue began to appear. These include baijisui (hundred crackles),
jinsi tiexian (golden threads and iron wires), alluding to the
and displays a dazzling pattern of irregular crackles that overlaying of smaller and larger crackles of different colour,
evokes textures found in nature such as opaque jade which
was popular for producing archaistic carvings. Inspired ‘accumulated foam and stringed beads’, referring to the tiny
by the celebrated ge wares of the Song and Yuan (1279- bubbles in the glaze, and ‘purple mouth and iron foot’. These
describe characteristics that were expected to be found also
1368) dynasties, its precise origins are still a matter of on reproductions of Song geyao, such as this piece.
debate. Its name derives from the term gege, literally ‘elder
brother’, in reference to an anecdote that circulated in The crackled ge glaze is seldom found on vessels of this
the Jiajing period (1522-1566) about a family of potters shape and indeed this piece appears to be unique, making its
who lived in Zhu prefecture, Zhejiang province. The elder attribution difficult. In The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese
brother, Zhang Shengyi, supposedly owned a kiln in the Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, p. 100, Julian Thompson
Longquan area during the Southern Song period (1127- discusses the dating of this piece, noting that it’s roughly-
1279), where crackled wares were made. The precise place cut foot, together with its combination of a well-known early
of manufacture of these wares has however remained 15th century shape and the much-admired ge crackled glaze,
a mystery. Archaeological excavations have unearthed suggest an attribution to the latter part of the Ming dynasty.
fragments of crackled wares resembling descriptions of ge The form of this piece was well-known in the early 15th
in classical texts at the Laohudong kilns, Hangzhou, while century and was inspired by Middle Eastern prototypes in
further crackled wares were discovered at kilns in Longquan.
metal or pottery. Two Yongle period (1403-1424) flasks of
These understated wares mask the extremely complicated this form, covered in a white glaze are illustrated in Imperial
process through which they were made. Their thinly potted Porcelains from the Hongwu and Yongle Reigns in the Ming
body was covered in multiple layers of glaze and successive Dynasty, Beijing, 2015, pls 71 and 72, the first in the Palace
firings, and their distinctive crackles were created during Museum, Beijing, and the second unearthed at Jingdezhen,
a meticulously controlled cooling process that allowed together with three blue and white examples, pls 68-70.
the glaze to contract more than the body. Attempts This flask was once in the collection of the Rt. Hon. Rolf, 2nd
at reproducing the crackled glaze of geyao at kilns in Baron Cunliffe of Headley (1899-1963), or Lord Cunliffe, one
Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, began already in the early 15th of the most important collectors of Chinese art in England
century, and examples of wares covered in ge-type glaze are and a prominent member of the Oriental Ceramic Society.
known with Xuande reign (1426-1435) marks. The crackles He began collecting in the 1940s and over the years amassed
of these ge-type wares were often stained to enhance their a vast collection of ceramics of all periods as well as archaic
prominence and where the white porcelain body was visible bronzes, jades and snuff bottles. Roy Davids and Dominic
at the foot a dark-brown slip was applied to recreate the Jellinek in Provenance. Collectors, Dealers and Scholars:
so-called ‘iron foot’, characteristic of the prototypes.
Chinese Ceramics in Britain and America, Great Haseley,
2011, pp. 132-133, recall his playful and informal approach to
displaying his collection.

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