Bottle Vase, Kangxi period, 1662/1722

Not on View

Medium

porcelain with famille noire enamels and carved decoration

Dimensions

overall: 38.7 x 21 cm (15 1/4 x 8 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.609

Artists / Makers

Chinese Qing Dynasty (artist)

Image Use

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Inscription

falsely inscribed in standard script on the base in underglaze blue in three columns of two characters each: Da Ming Xuande nian zhi (made in the Xuande reign of the great Ming dynasty)

Provenance

M. J. Perry, Providence, Rhode Island.[1] J. Pierpont Morgan [1837-1913], New York. (Duveen Brothers, New York); sold 1915 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.

[1] Edith Standen's notes on the Widener collection (in NGA curatorial files). Probably Marsden J. Perry (1850-1935), Providence, Rhode Island, as he was a collector of Chinese porcelains, seven of which (instead of six as indicated in the NGA systematic catalogue) are currently in the NGA's collection.

Associated Names

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

Technical Summary

The vessel is thrown from a fine white paste. The low foot-ring is beveled and encloses a glazed base. There are numerous tiny glaze flaws on the lower body. The carved areas were then covered with a slightly bluish transparent glaze that continues onto the interior.

Bibliography

1904: Morgan 1904-1911, 2:62, no. 1213, pl. 97.

1942: Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 23.

1955: Koyama et al. 1955-1958, pl. 42.

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: 192-193, color repro.