| With two intricate landscape scenes, one depicting mountains with overhanging trees by the sea and the other with a bridge over water in the midst of trees and plants, the medallions surrounded by multitudes of clouds, the entire decoration in underglaze copper red, some areas showing green where the glaze misfired, the neck rising to a flared lip, the glaze pooling perfectly at the foot, a double circle in underglaze blue on the base. Restoration to lip. Yongzheng. 10 1/2 in.high.
Provenance: New York collection
Underglaze copper red vases from this period are rare.
The use of underglaze copper red dates to the early Ming period, most commonly seen in Hongwu examples (1368-1398). However due to the great difficulty of keeping the copper based glaze from misfiring and turning into green copper oxide the use of underglaze copper red glazes ended. It was reintroduced during the Qing on the orders of the Kangxi emperor. In its most refined iteration the pigments with some modification were able to create the peach bloom glazes used on the seven precious objects for the scholars table which bear the six character seal of Kangxi. However, copper red glazes continued to be difficult to control and often resulted in large ares of green copper oxide running over the decoration and surface of the piece, evidence of which can be seen in the example presently being offered for sale. Few extant pieces were successfully fired after the end of the Kangxi period, and the use of underglaze copper red was essentially abandoned. |
