A BLUE-GLAZED AND GILT-DECORATED BALUSTER VASE AND COVER WITH GILT BRONZE MOUNT

341.

A BLUE-GLAZED AND GILT-DECORATED BALUSTER VASE AND COVER WITH GILT BRONZE MOUNT
the vase Qing dynasty, first half of the 18th century; the mount probably French, mid 18th century
43 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3562.

The slender tapering body raised from a circular foot to a cylindrical neck, the domed cover with a rounded finial, the external surface with a dark blue glaze enriched by a finely painted gilt decoration of landscapes, a gilt bronze ormolu mount underlines the rim of the mouth and the lower side of the cover, applied on a side of the body toward the foot a gilt bronze ‘mascherone’ with a spout shaped as the head of a swan.

The combination of a monochrome blue glaze with a gold decoration dates back to the Yuan dynasty. Even if it was used also in the Ming dynasty, it was during the Kangxi period that the ceramists in Jingdezhen fully developed this decorative technique.

Differently from the great part of the other numerous Chinese porcelain containers with a European metal mount applied in the eighteenth century, whose main aim is to further embellish an object already admired for its exotic rarity or to hide certain damages, this vase had simple but very elegant ormolu appliques which seems rather to have first the functional purpose of a fountain.