Page 53 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art April 3 2018

Each concise yet freely painted stroke is visible on the equal less than half those unearthed from the Xuande stratum,
decoration of this vase and reflects the intentional and even though the latter period was so much shorter (see Liu
derivative nature of the changing aesthetic of the era. After Xinyuan, ‘Reconstructing Chenghua Porcelain from Historical
decades of importing Lajiward cobalt from the Middle East, by Records’, The Emperor’s Broken china: Reconstructing
the mid-fifteenth century it was reaching the end of its supply. Chenghua Porcelain, Sotheby’s London, 1995, p. 11).
As a result, the government began to mine the domestic Bo
Amongst the larger vessels made in the Chenghua period,
Tang mine in Jingdezhen. This elegant mid-hue pigment, with
see a pear-shape vase decorated with similarly rendered
several rich and light distinct layers, was distinctly different
lotus scrolls, on a tall flared foot and flanked with handles,
from the deep and intense colour characteristic of early-
from the collection of L.A. Basmadgieff, sold in our London
Ming porcelain. Ink-like in texture and more even than the
rooms, 11th December 1979, lot 278, and again in these rooms,
foreign type, this pigment was devoid of ‘heaping and piling’;
8th April 2011, lot 3199; a bottle vase painted with phoenix
thus designs that highlighted the beauty of this cobalt were
among lotus scrolls, published in The Emperor’s Broken china:
developed. The individually rendered lotus petals and the
Reconstructing Chenghua Porcelain, ibid., pl. 47, together with
carefully shaded stiff leaves of the present piece point to the a fragmentary ewer, pl. 48; and a lobed vase, from the Qing
control craftsmen were able to exert over the medium, and the
Court collection and still in Beijing, illustrated in The Complete
resulting ink painting effect they were able to achieve.
Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Blue and White
Chenghua period vessels are rare, with the majority of extant Porcelain with Underglazed Red (II), Shanghai, 2000, pl. 1.
vessels consisting of smaller utility vessels such as bowl Compare also a meiping attributed to the Chenghua period,
and dishes. Liu Xinyuan describes the volume of fragments included in Geng Baochang, op. cit., p. 88, fig. 150, together
recovered from the site of the Ming imperial kilns at Zhushan, with a guan jar, fig. 152; and a ‘lotus bud’ vase, col. pl. 33 and
Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, where the Chenghua fragments fig. 151, to be offered in our New York rooms, 20th March 2018,
lot 113.

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