93.
A PAIR OF ‘BLUE AND WHITE’ HEXAGONAL BOTTLE VASES
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, early 18th century
29,1 cm high each
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro, (1829-1891) collection.
inv. nn. 3736, 3738.
The six rounded sides on the body alternate compositions with the ‘Hundred Antiquities’ (bogu) with fan-shaped reserves with figures and still scattered objects, the neck and the foot with parallel stylized leaves decorated with scrolls reserved on the blue ground.
Shape, size and style of decoration of this pair of bottles strictly resemble a group of pieces characterized by the presence of an underglaze blue “G” letter to the bottom.
According to Christiaan Jörg (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. 259), this letters should be referred to a particular person, probably a Dutch merchant who commissioned the bottles. Other scholars argue that it is a reference to a mark on a Delft earthenware prototype (D. Suebsman – D.Antonin, Kangxi. Porcelain Treasures of the Kangxi Period, exhibition catalogue, Düsseldorf, 2016, n. 148).
A pair of “G” marked ‘blue and white’ bottles comparable to these two pieces is in The Carmona e Costa Foundation in Lisbon (M.A. Pinto de Matos – M. Salgado, Porcelana chinesa da Fundação Carmona e Costa/ Chinese Porcelain in The Carmona e Costa Foundation, Lisbon 2002, pp. 94-95, n. 19); other analogous pieces are in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul (R. Krahl, Chinese Ceramics in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul, 3 voll., London 1986, III, p. 1010, n. 2154) and in the Frick Collection in New York (J.A. Pope – M. Brunet, The Frick Collection. An Illustrated Catalogue. Volume VII – Porcelains. Oriental and French, New York 1974, pp. 54-55).
A decoration with similar style can be seen also on a vase in this same collection.
