85.
EWER
PORCELAIN DECORATED IN OVERGLAZE POLYCHROME
ENAMELS AND GILDING
JINGDEZHEN KILNS, JIANGXI PROVINCE
MING DYNASTY, JIAJING PERIOD (1522–1566),
MID 16TH CENTURY
HEIGHT 29.2 CM; MOUTH DIAMETER 5.8 CM;
FOOT DIAMETER 8.3 CM
INV. NO. 428
Ewer with a flattened pear-shaped body,
displaying a prominent panel on each side
shaped like an inverted peach, on a spreading
foot, and with the tall, narrowed neck
widening towards the everted raised rim
forming a ring. The long slender spout is
attached to the neck by an S-shaped bridge;
the long narrow handle has a ring at the top
that was designed to attach the domed lid
with a finial modelled like a seated lion.
Made of fine white porcelain, covered with
bluish glaze, except for the foot ring and
part of the inside of the foot, where a double
orangey line marks the edge of the glaze.
Decorated with overglaze enamels,
predominately iron red, with turquoise blue,
yellow, brown and gold. Both panels are
enamelled in red with a
kinrande
decoration
of a peacock between peonies and
surrounded by a frieze of pointed turquoise
leaves. Above and below the handle and
spout are four prominent white quatrefoil
panels reserved on a red hatched ground
with scattered lozenges, books, and
turquoise and yellow flower heads.
The panels are outlined in red and contain
red, turquoise and yellow decoration, the
upper panels enclosing a sprig with a peach
and flower, the lower panels a bird, plants
and lotus blossom. On the neck, above a
band with an interrupted scroll and below a
frieze with small leaves, a band with two red
reserves containing a gilded lotus, separated
by rows of pearls with a lozenge, one of the
Eight Precious Objects. In the frieze below
the rim alternating broad turquoise and finer
red pointed leaves emerge from a red band
that accentuates the narrowed neck and
appears to connect the spout to the handle.
On the foot two of the Eight Precious
Objects, a lozenge and a book, interlaced
with undulating ribbons, which alternate and
are repeated twice. The spout, with a
turquoise dragon’s head at the base, and the
handle are completely covered with red glaze
and decorated with gold flames.
Ewers of similar shape and decoration are in
the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul; 1 in the
Baur Collection, Geneva; 2 and in the
Shanghai Museum, Shanghai. 3
1 Krahl, 1986, vol. 2, p. 821, no. 1649.
2 Ayers, 1969, no. A 178; Ayers, 1999, vol. I, p. 150,
no. 90.
3 Krahl, ibid.
220 .
PORCELAIN OF THE YUAN (1279-1368) AND MING (1368-1644) DYNASTIES