Baluster Vase, Kangxi period, 1662/1722

West Building, Ground Floor — Gallery G11

Medium

porcelain with famille verte enamels on the biscuit

Dimensions

overall: 43.2 x 20.3 cm (17 x 8 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.606

Artists / Makers

Chinese Qing Dynasty (artist)

Image Use

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Provenance

Richard Bennett, Northampton, England. (Gorer, London); (Dreicer and Co., New York, agent for Gorer, London); sold 1913 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

Bennett, Richard
Dreicer & Co.
Gorer
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Technical Summary

The vase was thrown in two sections that were luted together at the shoulder. It appears that the raised band and striations on the neck were created by a sharp tool used to cut away the leather-hard clay as it was turned on the wheel. The roughly beveled foot-ring reveals a white paste. The bottom is covered by a thin matte glaze. Only the interior of the neck and several spots on the interior bottom are glazed. A small chip is visible on the exterior of the lip.

Bibliography

1911: Gorer 1911, 77, no. 391.

1911: Gorer/Blacker 1911, 1:pl. 29.

1942: Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 23.

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: 155, color repro.