Lot 31: AN UNUSUAL WHITE-GLAZED SOFT PASTE MOLDED 'DRAGONS AND LINGZHI' VASE 18th century

AN UNUSUAL WHITE-GLAZED SOFT PASTE MOLDED 'DRAGONS AND LINGZHI' VASE

18th century

Of flattened baluster shape, the wide body molded in low relief in a continuous scene with a striding three-clawed dragon to each side amidst scrolling auspicious
lingzhi between a band of breaking waves at the foot and
ruyi-head lappets at the shoulder, the neck similarly molded and divided at the narrow sides by simple loop handles with
wanzi, all under a slightly creamy white glaze with a widely spaced crackle, supported on a rounded oval biscuit foot rim, the base glazed.


9 1/2in (24.1cm) high

Generally, in good overall condition, save for losses to the lower section of each loop handle and some kiln adhesion. Some small glaze pulls at various points of the molded design but unobtrusive.

十八世紀 白釉模印漿胎靈芝螭龍紋瓶



Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價




Provenance:

Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904), New York

Purchase by subscription, 1879

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1879-present




來源：

Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904)，紐約

會費購藏，1879 年

大都會藝術博物館，1879 年迄今



Kilns in Jingdezhen began producing porcelain in soft paste (known in Chinese as
huashi or 'slippery stone') in the 18th century. This material could produce thin vessels that were more easily decorated with hollow molds, saving labor and enabling increased production. For a moonflask with a Qianlong mark and molded with very similar sinuous dragons, see Peter Y. K. Lam (ed.),
Ethereal Elegance, Porcelain Vases of the Imperial Qing, The Huaihaitang Collection, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008, pp.88-89, no.3.



Compare also two related, white-glazed soft paste vases with Qianlong seal marks, one archaistic, that sold at Sotheby's, London, 15 May 2019, lot 39; and another of globular shape with molded floral design, that sold at Sotheby's, New York,
Important Chinese Ceramics from the J.M. Hu Family Collection, 4 June 1985, lot 32.



See also a Qianlong soft paste white-glazed vase, illustrated by R. Kerr,
Chinese Ceramics: Porcelain of the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911, London, 1998, no.29.

This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ¤