CATALOGUE 2008
QING DYNASTY,YONGZHENG PERIOD (1723–1735)
LENGTH: 12CM
The washer is thinly potted with a circular sunken well in its centre and shallow walls glazed with slightly crackled, unctuous pale lavender blue surface and fired on an unglazed footring covered with a dark-brown wash. Three decorative ‘sesame-seed’ spur marks accent the glazed base.
SIMILAR EXAMPLES
Though unmarked, it can be suggested the washer could be a Qing imitation of the rare Song Dynasty Ru ware washers of similar elliptical shape. A possible inspiration to Ru-type washers of this shape may have come from one of two illustrated manuals in the 18th Century — the ‘Yen-chih liu-kuang’ and the ‘Fankung chang-se’ (both now housed in the National Palace Museum) — which describes its elongated elliptical ‘boat’ shape, an indented circular well in the centre of the vessel, as well as three ‘sesame-seed’ spur marks on its foot. Two Song dynasty prototypes can be found respectively in the Percival David Foundation and in the National Palace Museum.
PROVENANCE
Carl Kempe Collection
LITERATURE
Chinese Ceramics in the Carl Kempe Collection, Stockholm, 1964, p. 77, Catalogue No. 202.
清雍正仿汝窰水洗
