363.
A GREEN-GROUND AND BLACK ENAMELED EWER WITH GILT METAL MOUNT, KENDI
the ewer Ming dynasty, Chongzheng period; the mount European, 18th century
26 cm high
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. n. 3369.
Kendi is a Malayan term derived from the Sanskrit word kundikā which identifies the bottle used to carry water in Hindu and Buddhist rituals in Southern Asia. Chinese ceramists produced from the sixteenth century onward a large amount of kendi explicitly destined to the export market, as proved by the presence of this kind of ewer among the porcelain recovered from the wrecks of the San Diego (1600) (D. Carré – J-P. Desroches – F. Goddio, Le San Diego. Un trésor sous la mer, Paris 1994, pp. 338-339, nn. 104-105) and the Witte Leeuw (1613) (C.J.A. Jörg, in collaboration with J. Van Campen, Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The Ming and Qing Dynasties, London 1997, p. 67, n. 54).
Although kendi were a product conceived and realized mainly for the South-East Asian market, they were also appreciated in Europe, especially in Holland, for their unusual shape. The present ewer was probably originally thought for export to The Netherlands through the intermediation of the VOC. The motif of the stylized tulip which appears on its neck is in fact a typical feature of that kind of export ware.
As a consequence of the massive arrival of Chinese kendi, the ceramists in Delft begun from 1680 to locally produce ‘blue and white’ imitations (see the example in the Musées Royaux d’Art et d’Histoire in Brussels, inv. Ev 108).
The combination of a black enamelled decoration under a green glaze was already experimented during the Northern Song period in the Guantai kilns (Cixian, Hebei province) which produced Cizhou-style wares (see the vase in the Meiyintang collection: R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Meiyintang Collection. Vol. 3, London 2006, III, pt.II, pl. 1541).
