Vase in the Form of a Carp, Mounted as an Ewer, Yongzheng period, 1723/1735 (vase); c. 1730/1755 (mounts)

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G12

Medium

porcelain with blue celadon glaze, in gilt-bronze mount

Dimensions

overall (without mount): 21.7 × 6.1 × 10.8 cm (8 9/16 × 2 3/8 × 4 1/4 in.)
overall (with mount): 31.1 × 10.3 × 17.3 cm (12 1/4 × 4 1/16 × 6 13/16 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.443

Artists / Makers

Chinese Qing Dynasty (artist)

Image Use

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Provenance

Marquis de Montault, Château de la Terte, Trescuel, L'Aigle, Normandy. Lord Hastings, London. (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold 1908 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Hastings, Lord
Montault, Marquis de
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Exhibition History

1980: Chinese Porcelains in European Mounts, China House Gallery, China Institute in American, New York, 1980, no. 30.

1986: Mounted Chinese Porcelain, traveling exh. organized by the International Exhibitions Foundation, shown at The Frick Collection, New York; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, 1986-1987, no. 32.

1994: Fanciful Flourishes: Ornament in European Graphic Art and Related Objects, 1300-1800, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994, brochure, no. 79, as Chinese Vase in Form of a Goldfish, on a French Mount by Chinese Qing Dynasty and French 18th Centu

2007: Loan for display with permanent collection, Seattle Art Museum, 2007-2009.

Technical Summary

The condition of both the porcelain and the gilt bronze mount is excellent. Examination by x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy in 1985 detected no cobalt in the glaze, 1 but iron was found, suggesting that it is a celadon glaze.2

1. NGA conservation report submitted by Barbara Berrie, dated 6 August 1985. 2. Tichane 1978, 6769, states that the absence of titanium in the glaze produces the green ferrous colorant in blue celadon glazes.

Bibliography

1942: Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 19.

1947: Christensen, Erwin O. Chinese Porcelains of the Widener Collection. Washington, 1947 (rev. ed. 1956): 26; 1956, 30.

1980: Lunsingh Scheurleer 1980, 95, fig. 331.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 34, color repro. 35.

1986: Mounted Chinese Porcelain. Exh. cat. The Frick Collection, New York; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Center for the Fine Arts, Miami. Organized by International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1986: no. 32.

1998: Bower, Virginia, Josephine Hadley Knapp, Stephen Little, and Robert Wilson Torchia. Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings; Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1998: 261-263, color repro.