Page 74 - For the Love of Porcelain

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Ginger jar with lid,
hexagonic, with
decoration in relief
covered in green glaze,
China, 1800 - 1900,
earthenware,
16,5 x 16.5 cm,
Princessehof National
Museum of Ceramics,
Leeuwarden, on loan
from the Ottema-
Kingma Foundation,
Leeuwarden, inv. no.
NO 01484

8
Ginger jar, hexagonic, with
decoration in
relief of lowers and ruyi,
ca. 1970, China,
earthenware,
9,1 x 5.9 cm, Princessehof
National Museum of
Ceramics, Leeuwarden,
on loan from gemeente
Leeuwarden, inv. no.
6 with three different kinds of decoration in GMP 1976-045
Floris Verster (1861- relief. Two panels display inscriptions. One
1927), Stilleven met inscription starts with the title of a poem
bloemen: paarse en by Song dynasty poet Lu You (1125–1209), 9
groene zinnia’s in een ‘The Oriole and Flower Pavilion’ (‘Yinghua Round vessel, China,
groene gemberpot, 1910, Ting’). The other inscription encourages Anne-Louise Muir writes about a hexagonal / Mee Chun Canning Co’ (fig. 8). In shape Before the use of sticky labels to identify undated, porcelain
oil on panel, 24 × 19 cm, people to perform good deeds. Another pair jar of this type found in Australia. 11 Based and colour this jar references the older contents and manufacturers became painted in underglaze
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, of panels shows figurative motifs. on research by Nigel Wood, she states that piece, while its decorative scheme differs in widespread, inscriptions served the same blue, Paul Unschuld
inv. no. SK-A-2941, the glaze was ‘made from ground glass featuring a variety of flowers. In most cases it purpose. In the illustrated example from the collection, Ethnologisches
image in the public One of them features the image of the God mixed with mud from the Pearl River’ in is difficult to identify the original contents of nineteenth century (fig. 9), the characters Museum, Staatliche
domain. of Longevity (Shouxing) with his bulbous Guangdong. This provenance of the glaze the jars that many if not most contemporary written on the porcelain vessel in underglaze Museen zu Berlin,
head, holding a walking stick, standing as well as the many similarities that this museum labels describe as ‘ginger jars’. The blue indicate a liquid substance, namely dew Preußischer Kulturbesitz,
beneath a pine tree and accompanied by a type of jar has to Shiwan wares and others label of the Leeuwarden jar from the 1930s, collected from flowers that was a fragrant Berlin,
deer. The female figure in another panel can from Guangdong kilns make it reasonable however, reveals that in this particular case, cosmetic for women’s skin care. A street inv. no. I D 47116,
be identified as the Daoist Immortal Magu, to assume that the Leeuwarden jar was the ‘ginger jar’ did in fact contain ginger. name inscription indicates the address of photo: Martin Franken
who in this depiction as well as other late produced in Guangdong. 12 Comparable to the previously discussed the ‘flower dew’ producer. Inscriptions were
Qing-dynasty (1644–1910) representations example of a biscuit tin inspired by the also applied to other vessels, indicating
holds a long-handled sickle to harvest the While this example has been dated to designs of a blue-and-white Kangxi jar, tangerine peel (against coughs and sore
Peaches of Immortality, and is accompanied the nineteenth century, a similarly glazed this petrol green earthenware container was throats) and place names such as a certain
by a crane. 10 The other two panels show hexagonal jar from the 1930s in the inspired by a historic prototype, imitating it ‘small Southern gate’ (xiao nan men). These
landscapes, a view of a boat in front of Leeuwarden collections is provided with a for commercial reasons. examples come from the collection of the
a pagoda and scenery with rocks and a label that reads ‘Preserved Ginger in Syrup Berlin State Museums assembled by Paul
blossoming tree. / Young Stem Ginger / Made in Hong Kong Unschuld, a historian of Chinese medicine.

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