Baluster Vase, Kangxi period, 1662/1722

West Building, Ground Floor - Gallery 11

Medium

porcelain with famille verte enamels on the biscuit

Dimensions

overall: 75.2 x 28.3 cm (29 5/8 x 11 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.607

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 vertical columns of two characters each within a double circle: Da Ming Jiajing nian zhi (made in the Jiajing reign of the great Ming dynasty)

Provenance

Richard Bennett, Northampton, England. (Gorer, London); (Dreicer and Co., New York, agent for Gorer, London); sold 1913 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

Bennett, Richard
Dreicer & Co.
Gorer
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Technical Summary

The porcelain paste is grayish white. The base is recessed within a rounded foot-ring and glazed with a thin matte glaze. There are several cracks across the base, and small associated losses have been filled and inpainted, including a portion of the inscription. The rim has been wiped free of glaze; the interior is completely glazed. A clean break around the base of the neck has been repaired and carefully overpainted. There is also a repaired and overpainted crack above the foot-ring. Several small chips occur in the foot-ring.

Bibliography

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

1947: Christensen, Erwin O. Chinese Porcelains of the Widener Collection. Washington, 1947 (rev. ed. 1956): 16, figs. 5, 6.

1955: Koyama et al. 1955-1958, 176, fig. 17.

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: 156, color repro.