Page 70 - Sothebys HK Dragon Emperor April 2024

fig. 1. Emperor Minghuang and Consort Yang Playing Weiqi, Late Ming dynasty, 17th century, detail, fig. 2. Weiqi chess set, Ming dynasty, excavated from the tomb of Prince Huang of Lu, Shandong Museum
ink and colour on silk, Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer, accession no. F1911.227

Game boards, game pieces, and jars to hold the pieces Jing, but reputedly, he was not amused when he lost. special recipe and calculated technology. According to jar appears to be recorded, from the J.M. Hu Family
dating from the Han dynasty onwards have been Under his patronage, the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen Rose Kerr and Nigel Wood (Science and Civilisation in Collection, probably the pair to our vessel, with a similar
excavated in China. While it is not always indisputably experienced revolutionary changes. The physical China, vol. 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, part lotus scroll and a tianbai glaze of similar pale greenish
clear which jars in the past would have been used quality of the porcelain produced there was boosted 12: Ceramic Technology, Cambridge, 2004, pp. 560f.), tint; it was sold twice in our rooms, in New York, 4th June
for game pieces, we know that in the Song dynasty to previously unknown excellence, and traditional the tactile surface and slight opacity of tianbai glazes are 1985, lot 1, and in Hong Kong, 1st November 1999, lot
(960-1279), chess-piece jars were barrel-shaped, styles were revamped on a grand scale. The form of the due, among other factors, to lower lime-alkali quantities 324, and is illustrated in Sotheby’s: Thirty Years in Hong
imitating the form of drums, often with drum nails present jar was developed in the Yongle reign, when and higher firing temperatures (1290-1310°C) than had Kong, Hong Kong, 2003, pl. 118.
simulated through applied knobs of clay. A chess piece artisans – or designers – conceived completely new been used for earlier white wares.
jar and cover of that type from the Yaozhou kiln site is forms with superb profiles, which display an unerring A similar jar, apparently with a different incised flower
illustrated together with chess pieces in Songdai Yaozhou sense of proportions and a clear view to functionality. The lush incised Buddhist, or Indian, lotus band and the scroll, is in the Palace Museum, Taipei, published
yaozhi/The Yaozhou Kiln Site of the Song Period, Beijing, The bun-form profile of the present piece has a sensual bordering ruyi and classic scrolls are characteristic of the in Mingdai chunian ciqi tezhan mulu/Catalogue of
1998, col. pl. XI. roundness that the earlier Song and Ming prototypes are period. Under a different near-white glaze, for example a Special Exhibition of Early Ming Period Porcelain,
lacking, inviting the bluish-white (qingbai) glaze of a contemporary Palace Museum, Taipei, 1982, no. 55, together with an
The weiqi us to grasp bowl in the Palace Museum, the decoration became unusual stepped cover (which may or may not belong);
game appears The tianbai glaze […] is undoubtedly the finest white it with both very distinct another jar
to have been glaze ever produced at Jingdezhen, but it may also hands, or else, (see Gugong Yongle chess jars are extremely rare altogether and with a different
very popular to pick it up Bowuyuan design is in
at court during have been the most demanding. It did not survive with one hand cang wenwu seem to have been specially produced in small the Shanghai
the early Ming beyond this reign, and in no other reign was the inserted into zhenpin quanji. numbers, perhaps in individual pairs. Only one very Museum,
dynasty, when the opening. Danse you/ illustrated in
the emperors beauty of a monochrome white glaze celebrated in a The Complete similar jar appears to be recorded, from the J.M. Hu Lu Minghua,
enjoyed playing comparable manner. Not only the Collection of Family Collection, probably the pair to our vessel [...] Shanghai
with their shape was new Treasures of Bowuguan
generals, their in this period, the Palace zangpin yanjiu
ministers, or the white glaze Museum. Monochrome Porcelain, Hong Kong, 1999, pl. daxi/Studies of the Shanghai Museum Collections :
with renowned chess masters. The Hongwu Emperor covering this jar was also developed in the Yongle reign. 125). Under the tianbai glaze, incised designs exhibit the A Series of Monographs. Mingdai guanyao ciqi [Ming
(r. 1368-1398) is recorded to have been an enthusiastic The blue-and-white colour scheme that had become greatest subtlety. It seems that only a hint of decoration imperial porcelain], Shanghai, 2007, no. 4-12. A jar of this
player, but at the same time issued a decree prohibiting popular from the early fourteenth century onwards was was intended, that required handling of the vessel to be form without incised decoration is in the Palace Museum,
the play for the populace at large, in the hope thus to not an immediate success with China’s elites, or at court, fully appreciated. The tianbai glaze is synonymous with Beijing, illustrated in Mingdai Hongwu Yongle yuyao ciqi.
discourage idleness. The tomb of one of his sons, Zhu where a more austere aesthetic was still prevailing. To the Yongle period. It is undoubtedly the finest white glaze Jingdezhen yuyao yizhi chutu yu Gugong Bowuyuan cang
Tan, Prince Huang of Lu (1370-1389) has brought to light cater to this taste, the Jingdezhen kilns put all efforts ever produced at Jingdezhen, but it may also have been zhuanshi ciqi duibi/Imperial Porcelains from the Reigns of
a complete chess set of the period, consisting of a game into the creation of the most superb monochrome white the most demanding. It did not survive beyond this reign, Hongwu and Yongle in the Ming Dynasty. A Comparison of
board and a pair of jars holding black and white game surface. The plain white porcelains of the Yongle reign, and in no other reign was the beauty of a monochrome Porcelains from the Imperial Kiln Site at Jingdezhen and
pieces, the jars still retaining the Song-dynasty barrel in China identified by the term tianbai (‘sweet white’), white glaze celebrated in a comparable manner. the Imperial Collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing,
shape (fig. 2). are not blue-and-whites without the blue. Rather than 2015, no. 123; and a jar with a monochrome ‘wintergreen’
just using a transparent coating of the white porcelain Yongle chess jars are extremely rare altogether and glaze, with a low flat cover, was sold in these rooms 8th
The Yongle Emperor (r. 1403-1424) is equally known to body, the potters carefully created a distinct white glaze, seem to have been specially produced in small numbers, October 2009, lot 1624.
have been a weiqi player. He often played against one different from that used for blue-and-white. It required a perhaps in individual pairs. Only one very similar
of the great masters of the period, a man named Liu

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