CATALOGUE 2024
MING DYNASTY (1368-1644)
LENGTH: 16.1CM
The vessel takes the form of a leaf with lobed sides and a pointed tip, its shallow
sides rises from a conforming knife-pared foot. The glaze is of a greyish tone
suffused with a fine network of characteristic ‘gold thread and iron wire’ crackles.
Its base is incised in the centre with a three-character inscription reading Huaxie
ju 畫蠏具 (“Implement for Painting Crabs”), and another below the tip of the leaf
in smaller script dated Tongzhi ernian zhi 同治二年製 (“Made in the second year
of Tongzhi”, corresponding to 1863). There is a further collector’s mark incised
on the side reading Jiaoxiang Shanguan zhuren zhenshang 蕉香山館主人珍賞
(“Prized and Enjoyed by the Master of Mount Jiaoxiang Hall”) followed by two
seals reading Zhang and Pei.
SIMILAR EXAMPLES
An ink palette from the National Palace Museum, Taipei, of closely related
shape and glaze, is illustrated in Through the Prism of the Past: Antiquarian
Trends in Chinese Art of the 16th to 18th Century 古色：十六至十八世紀藝術的
仿古風, Taipei, 2004, p. 36, Catalogue No. I-06. The thick, bevelled edges of
the footring and the grainy biscuit of the ink palette are characteristic of Ming
dynasty revivals of the Song glazes. Compare a Xuande mark and period ge
type chrysanthemum bowl from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in The
Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Monochrome Porcelain,
Hong Kong, 1999, p. 240, pl. 218.
PROVENANCE
Collection of Ko Fook Chuen (The Hall of Refined Elegance, no. D19), Hong
Kong, acquired in 1981
| 明代 仿哥釉葉形筆掭 |
