"Beehive" Water Pot, Kangxi period, 1662/1722

Not on View

Medium

porcelain with peachbloom glaze

Dimensions

overall: 8.3 x 12.7 cm (3 1/4 x 5 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.514

Artists / Makers

Chinese Qing Dynasty (artist)

Image Use

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Inscription

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

Provenance

Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1913], New York; sold 1916 to Joseph E. Widener,[1] Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A. B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener after purchase by funds of the Estate; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] The provenance published in the NGA systematic catalogue entry (Little et al. 1998, 69) is in error stating the 1916 sale was to Peter A. B. Widener. He died in 1915, so the sale of this pot was to Joseph E. Widener (Peter's son).

Associated Names

Clarke, Thomas Benedict
Widener, Joseph E.

Technical Summary

Two small dots of discoloration are found on the lip.

Bibliography

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): 130-137 130-137, repro.

1992: National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 310, repro.

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: 69-70, color repro.