157.
A PAIR OF ‘FAMILLE VERTE’ EWERS
Qing dynasty, Kangxi period, late 17th century
23 cm high each
Provenance: Naples, Villa della Floridiana, Museo Duca di Martina, Placido de Sangro (1829-1891) collection.
inv. nn. 3340, 3342.
The ewers with bulbous four lobed sides, a long neck with splayed ribbed rim, the spout in the shape of the head and neck of a phoenix, the exterior painted in overglaze enamels of the ‘Famille Verte’ palette with floral compositions (lotus, chrisanthemums, lotus, peonies) and geometric ground of hexagonal cells.
Ewers shaped as a phoenix, or a part of it, appear in Chinese ceramic already from the Tang dynasty (see for example the piece with a sancai glaze in the Minneapolis Museum of Art: inv. n. 50.46.174), surely inspired by Sassanian silver vessels, and continues to be used also during the Song dynasty (see the ewer in the British Museum: inv. 1936,1012.206: S.J. Vainker, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain: From Prehistory to the Present, London 1991, p. 131, fig. 97).
In later period, this kind of zoomporphic vessels were especially appreciated in South-east Asia, where ewers shaped as phoenix were also produced (see as example the vietnamese item in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. n. 1992.72.1).
The shape of the present ewers show affinities with kendi, those puring wessel that in fact were explicitly destined to the export in those countries.
A very similar ewer is in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (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. 177, n. 162); another comparable piece is in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (inv. n. C.1135&A-1910); see also the pair in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, both with the original domed cover with a small finial (inv. nn. 1955-50-160a,b). The ewer in the British Museum in London (inv. Franks.680.) has the same shape but a different floral decoration.
