Page 109 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain Getty Museum

20. PAIR OF VASES

THE PORCELAIN: Chinese (Kangxi), 1662-1722
THE GILT-BRONZE MOUNTS: French, circa 1770-75
HEIGHT: i ft., 7x/4 in. (49 cm); WIDTH: 93/4 in. (24.7 cm); DEPTH: 77/s in. (20 cm)

92.DI.19.1-.!

DESCRIPTION COMMENTARY
These vases of double-gourd form are covered with The lips of the vases have been cut or ground down
a black glaze. Much of their surface was once gilded but and the gilding on the porcelain is worn. The vases were
only traces of gold remain. The upper part of each gourd probably once fitted with small gilt-bronze lids, now lost.
was gilded with flowers whose roots are tied with a rib- Vases of this form were first made in bronze during
bon; the body of the lower section was decorated with the Tang dynasty (618-906). They imitate the shape of
floral scrolls and chrysanthemums; and the shoulders a double-gourd, which since ancient times was used to
with a band of six floral blossoms and a band of lotus at carry water.2 Vases of this type are known as mirror
the base. A "ghost" of these designs can be seen where black ware (wu ju}. They were often decorated with gilt
the mordant has bitten into the glaze (fig.2OA). floral and foliate patterns but, as is usually the case, the
Each vase is mounted with gilt bronze from the lip light Chinese gilding has mostly worn away. Nonethe-
down the neck to the shoulder, at the hip, on the sides, less, the ghost of the pattern is visible on the surface of
and around the foot. A band decorated with a Vitruvian the glaze. It results from the presence of elements, such
scroll on a stippled ground separates the top section of as bismuth of nitrate, used to consolidate the gold parti-
the neck mount, which is pierced in vertical bands, from cles into a liquid form that could be painted onto the
the pierced network of long, stylized leaves, which alter- glaze. During firing, these elements were etched into the
nate with long stems that end in leafy buds and are surface of the glaze beneath the gilded areas.
draped over the shoulder (fig. 2OB). The hip of each vase The gilding was added last and fired at a much lower
is set with two concentric bands separated by bunches temperature (about 7OO°C) than that used for the body
of oak leaves and acorns bound with ribbons. Guttse and glaze. High-firing would have reactivated the glaze
depend from the lower band. U-shaped handles deco- beneath. As a result, the gold did not adhere well to the
rated with piasters join the two bands at the sides of limited surface area of the very hard glaze and, because
each vase (fig. 2oc). Bunches of oak leaves and acorns of the low firing temperature, remained soft and wore
bound with ribbon hang from the handles, which easily when abraded.3 There is mention of garlic juice be-
extend down the sides of the vase and are joined to the ing used as a mordant, but the exact recipe is not known.
foot mount with pinned hinges. Each foot mount is dec- Mirror black wares were very fashionable in
orated with a band of leaves on a stippled ground. France in the early eighteenth century. The Jesuit mis-
sionary Pere Frangois-Xavier d'Entrecolles (1644-1741)
MARKS described their manufacture at Jingdezhen in a letter of
The potter's mark of two concentric circles is September i, 1712.4 He reported that the black glaze,
painted in underglaze blue on the underside of each vase. which he compared to oil, was made up of iron oxide
The foot mounts are stamped with the letters LH and cobalt manganese, elements normally used in lim-
in a rectangle, presumably the initials of the former ited quantity for brown and blue glazes, respectively.
owner, Laurent Heliot (fig.200).l Vessels were repeatedly dipped and high-fired with this
glaze until their surface was saturated with color and

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