351.
A BLACK-MIRROR-GROUND AND GILT-DECORATED EWER AND COVER, ZHIHU
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
19,2 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 4582.
The zhihu shape is in the repertory of Chinese ceramists since the Song dynasty, used for the water to prepare tea or to contain alcohol.
An ewer with a nearly identical shape, but with a decoration consisting on the body of a stylized phoenix, is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (S. Valenstein, in Robert Collection 2012, p. 348).
