Page 203 - J.J. Lally Chinese Art CHRISTIE'S March 23 2023 NYC

905 AN EXTREMELY RARE CLAIR-DE-LUNE- 清康熙ǭ天藍釉百條缸
GLAZED ‘HUNDRED RIB’ JAR, GUAN
KANGXI PERIOD (1662-1722) Ϝ源
藍理捷
紐約
編號
Sturdily potted with broad, rounded shoulders beneath the lipped rim,
the jar is molded with narrow, vertical ribs and is covered overall with
an even sky-blue glaze with the exception of the flat base.
10¿ in. (25.7 cm.) wide, cloth box
$400,000-600,000
PROVENANCE:
J. J. Lally & Co., New York, no. 3902.

Clair-de-lune or ‘tian lan’ (sky blue) glazed wares were highly An almost identical clair-de-lune jar is in the Palace Museum,
prized in the Kangxi period and the color was strictly reserved for Beijing, illustrated in Gutaoci ziliao xuancui (Selected Information
imperial porcelain. The glaze was first developed in the Xuande Regarding the Beijing Palace Museum Ceramics), vol. 2, Beijing, 2005,
(1426-1435) period, as evidenced by the excavated Xuande-marked p. 127, no. 105. Another similar example is illustrated in Studies
stem bowl illustrated by S. Liang in Yuan’s and Ming’s Imperial of the Collections of the National Museum of China- Ceramics- Qing
Porcelains Unearthed from Jingdezhen, Beijing, 1999, p. 256, no. 257. Dynasty, Shanghai, 2007, p. 48, no. 30.
The glaze did not gain prominence until the Kangxi period when
it was refined and used mostly for scholar’s objects, in many of Another similar ‘tian lan’ glazed ‘hundred ribs’ jar from the
the same shapes as peachbloom-glazed wares. In reference to Zande Lou Collection is illustrated in Qing Imperial Monochromes:
three small clair-de-lune glazed wares in The Metropolitan Museum The Zande Lou Collection, Hong Kong, 2005, p. 44-45, no. 5, where
of Art, Sue Valenstein notes, “They illustrate why clair de lune the author cites a similar jar in the collection of the Shanghai
is among the most treasured of the Qing-dynasty glazes.’ Museum and also notes that the shape could possibly have been
(S. Valenstein, A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics, New York, 1975, made to imitate a basket. See, also, Sotheby's Hong Kong, 25
p. 241) The ribbed form most likely derives from Longquan November 1980, lot 73, for a 'hundred rib' jar from the Edward
celadon ribbed jars from the 14th century. Chow Collection.

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