Page 69 - Sothebys Important Chinese Art April 3 2018

The inscription on this brushpot is an excerpt from Song He wares that combined two or more precious materials were
Binke gui Yue [Seeing off guest He returning to Yue], a poem developed. This brushpot is a rare and excellent example
composed by the famous Tang poet Li Bai (701-762) recording of lacquered porcelain, the rarity of such pieces possibly
the departure of his poet friend, He Zhihang (659-744), to attributed to its fragility. Another brushpot, of larger size
the state of Yue, where the mirror lake was one of the major and broader proportions, was sold in our New York rooms,
attractions. The verse may be translated as follows: 5th June 1985, lot 142. A rouleau vase decorated in a similar
technique, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
On the mirror-clear lake, the floating reflection stirs ripples,
was included in the Museum’s exhibition Mother-of-Pearl.
An unbridled traveller steers his boat and escapes to the dark
A Tradition in Asian Lacquer, 2006, cat. no. 27, where it
sea.
is mentioned that there is another vase of this type in the
This exquisite brushpot exemplifies the inventiveness of Metropolitan Museum that was first decorated with underglaze
Chinese art during the Kangxi period, which was possible blue decoration and then covered with lacquer, suggesting that
through the Emperor’s enthusiastic patronage of the arts. some porcelains were redecorated in this manner (p. 66).
Mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquer was produced from the Tang
See also a porcelain vase similarly embellished with inlaid
period (618-907), with a similarly intricate type developed
lacquer, in the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague, illustrated in
from the Song (960-1279) and flourishing in the Yuan (1279-
Michel Beurdeley and Guy Raindre, Qing Porcelain, London,
1368) dynasties. This brushpot is decorated using a complex
technique that was invented in the seventeenth century 1987, pl. 65; a globular jar and cover in the Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, collection no. 117&LID-1883; a yen yen
by Chinese craftsmen working in one of the twenty-seven
vase from the Stephen W. Bushell collection, published in
workshops under the directorship of Viceroy Lang Tingzuo
Stephen Bushell, Chinese Art, vol. II, London, 1910, pl. 53; and
(1656-1668) in the newly established Zaobanchu (Imperial
Manufacture Department) in the Forbidden City. According to a dish, from the Grandidier collection and now in the Musee
Guimet, Paris, included in Oriental Ceramics. The World’s
Harry Garner in Chinese Lacquer, London, 1979, p. 259, this
Great Collections, vol. 7, Tokyo, 1981, pl. 157. Bronze was
technique represents the final stage of lacquerware technology
also decorated with this technique; compare a fanghu vase,
in China. The porcelain body is covered with layers of black
lacquer which are decorated with inlaid mother-of-pearl, and included in the exhibition East Asian Lacquer. The Florence and
Herbert Irving Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
further applied with gold and silver leaf and dust. The use
New York, 1991, cat. no. 62.
of dust enabled craftsmen to step away from filling space
with diaper patterns, thus endowing the design with a more Lacquered porcelain appears to have its roots in the Yuan
painterly effect. dynasty (1279-1368); see a qingbai figure of the Buddha
Amitabha, in the Beijing Art Museum, Beijing, included in the
The close proximity of the various workshops specialising in
different materials in the Forbidden City led to the sharing of exhibition Treasures from Ancient Beijing, Christie’s, New York,
2000, cat. no. 7.
personnel and ideas between workshops. As a result, luxurious

IMPORTANT CHINESE ART 67