Water Pot, Kangxi period, 1662/1722

Not on View

Medium

porcelain with peachbloom glaze

Dimensions

overall: 7.6 x 9.9 cm (3 x 3 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.503

Artists / Makers

Chinese Qing Dynasty (artist)

Image Use

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Inscription

in standard script on the base in underglaze blue in three vertical columns of two characters each: Da Qing Kangxi nian zhi (made in the Kangxi reign of the great Qing dynasty)

Provenance

M. Startseff, Tientsin. J. Pierpont Morgan [1837-1913], New York. (Duveen Brothers, New York); sold to Peter A. B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Morgan, Sr., J. Pierpont
Startseff, M.
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Exhibition History

1910: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, c. 1910-1911.

Technical Summary

There is an inclusion in the glaze near the mouth. Pinholes occur in the transparent glaze of the interior and the base. There is a small glaze flaw on the base.

/ACC 1942.9.504

The cobalt blue of the underglaze mark is dark. Black ink deposits fill pores (pinholes caused by small bubbles breaking on surface during firing) on the inside under the lip and on the outside, mostly in lighter colored glaze areas. The lip has a triangular chip darkened by ink. A hairline crack runs from the mouth almost to the base. Glaze flaws appear on the base, which is slightly recessed within a narrow foot-ring.

Bibliography

1942: Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 20.

1947: Christensen, Erwin O. Chinese Porcelains of the Widener Collection. Washington, 1947 (rev. ed. 1956): 35, repro.

1957: Chait, Ralph M. "The Eight Prescribed Peachbloom Shapes Bearing Kanh-hsi Marks." Oriental Art 3 (Winter 1957): 130-137, 137, repro. 135.

1998: Bower, Virginia, Josephine Hadley Knapp, Stephen Little, and Robert Wilson Torchia. Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings; Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 72-73, color repro.