Covered Box for Seal Paste, Kangxi period, 1662/1722

Not on View

Medium

porcelain with peachbloom glaze

Dimensions

overall: 3.8 x 7.2 cm (1 1/2 x 2 13/16 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.509

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 Kangzi nian zhi (made in the Kangzi reign of the great Qing dynasty)

Provenance

Marsden J. Perry [1850-1935], Providence, Rhode Island. J. Pierpont Morgan [1837-1913], New York. (Duveen Brothers, New York); sold to Peter A. B. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Morgan, Sr., J. Pierpont
Perry, Marsden J.
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Exhibition History

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

Technical Summary

Residue of vermilion seal paste adheres to the biscuit area of closure. A hairline crack on the closing edge of the lower part of the box is filled with red pigment; it may be an old crack that developed while the piece was in use. The cobalt blue of the closely spaced characters of the mark is clear and strong.

Bibliography

1904: Morgan 1904-1911, 2:80, no. 1324, pl. 123 (top left).

1942: Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 21.

1947: Christensen, Erwin O. Chinese Porcelains of the Widener Collection. Washington, 1947 (rev. ed. 1956): 30; 1956, 34.

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

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: 58-60, color repro.