Chinese celadon vase, decorated with symbols, marked Kangxi

Preview Entry 5 - Carlo Bonte (Asian Arts Part II 10-28-2015)

A Chinese celadon vase, decorated with symbols, marked Kangxi

Lot 451

6 Characters (大清康熙年製) mark

Estimated: €400 - €600

Realized Price: $7,000

Hey Hey Hey, Connoisseur Bear is here!  Sorry guys I have dragged into the study of anthropology and the readings and paper amount is hellish!!!

This week we will talk about a Kangxi jun 尊 vase.

For this vase, I am quite positive about this vase.  Reasons below:

1.      Shape matters

For this vase, it resembles the shape of jun 尊 vase during Kangxi period, usually besides finding example pieces from museum catalogues and exhibition, we also read different materials related to Chinese antiques.  In one of our Chinese porcelain text book written by Geng Bao Chang, 耿寶昌, he mentioned about the shape of a “jun” vase during Kangxi period, which kind resemble the vase we featured this week.  As we know that, the pieces from imperial kiln are strictly restricted in style, so the form of a vase should not be in a huge variety.

Abstrict from "Ming and Qing porcelain on inspection", 明清瓷器鑒定, page 17

2.      Motif matters

For the motifs on the vase, we usually call them as animal mask, 獸面.  This type of motifs is popular for archaistic bronze wares during Shang dynasty 商朝(c. 1600 BC–c. 1046 BC), and suddenly it is “revived” in Kangxi period.  This kind of motifs is unique in Kangxi reign as it is hard to find animal mask motifs in later reigns.

'Fangyi' Covered Ritual Wine Vessel with 'Taotie' Decor, collection of Harvard Art Museums

3.      Mark matters

We always talk about the mark, that because it represents the written style of certain dynasties and periods.  We have talked about the written style of Yongzheng and Kangxi period in previous entry, which is related to the composition of the Chinese texts.  You guys can refer to it.  The mark of this vase can be resembled to the mark during Kangxi period.

4.      Foot rim matters

Another thing that we always talk about is: foot rim, this is the thing that “gives out” the quality of a ceramic,  as it reveals the body of a porcelain piece.  For celadon pieces during Qing dynasty, we call this type of glaze as 東青釉 (eastern green), which is extremely similar to the celadon glaze in later reigns, 冬青釉 (winter green).  For the pieces that in eastern green or winter green during Qing dynasty, we can see many “rings” in the foot rim, which very similar to the piece we featured this week.  However, one thing to remind you guys is that, if we see this kind of rim in blue and white pieces, it is problematic and usually it is a red flag.

The ring (not the spooky one)

Conclusion: 

Analyzing a Chinese antique is hard, it required years of experience and devotion of learning via reading different books that are academic and reliable.  I hope that I can serve as a bridge for you all to admire the beauty of Chinese ceramics.

Wow!

BESIDES, WE JUST GOT ONE LIKE IN FACEBOOK, SHOUTOUT TO OUR HERO, MICHAEL SHANG!  OUR BEARS ALMOST SHUT THE BLOG AND SCRATCH THEIR TUMMIES BUT NOW WE WILL CONTINUE OUR EFFORTS

celebrate good times come on