登录
China, 1368-1644 or earlier. Superbly potted with six lobes, each in the shape of a mallow petal, gently flaring from a countersunk base, covered overall with a thick glaze of soft, brown-tinted cream glaze, suffused with an attractive network of fine black crackles and an underlying network of distinct russet crackle, and subtly thinning on the mouth rim, the base with six spur marks each revealing the dark gray ware.
Provenance: From a private collection in the United Kingdom. According to the previous owner’s personal notes, the washer was formerly in the collection of Henri Brionval. Henri Léon Marie Brionval (1907-1978) was a French diplomat who served in Shanghai, Longzhou and Canton before representing France on the United Nations Commission on Korea from 1950. During the Korean War he also served as French consul and acting chargé d’affaires, remaining in Korea until February 1954. Later appointments took him to Karachi and Beni-Mellal, Morocco. Auction records associate Henri and his brother Jean with a wide-ranging collection of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese art.
Condition: The bowl carefully repaired in ancient kintsugi. Otherwise in good condition with expected wear and firing irregularities, including small burst glaze bubbles and small glaze recesses.
Weight: 171.8 g
Dimensions: Length 11.8 cm
Expert’s note
The gold-lacquer repair on this washer, known in Japanese as kintsugi, is itself of considerable age and of a quality and refinement rarely encountered. Its muted reddish tones, matte surface, and subtly irregular luster are characteristic of historic repairs dating from the 18th century onwards. Such careful restoration reflects the longstanding esteem in which Chinese ceramics were held in Japan, from the earliest importation of Song dynasty wares through subsequent centuries. The repair was certainly completed no later than the period in which the bowl apparently belonged to Henri Brionval (1907–1978), whose diplomatic service in East Asia would have afforded him ready access to skilled local craftsmen and restorers.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Ge ware was long considered to be one of the great wares of the Song dynasty, and Ge-ware was regarded by connoisseurs and collectors of the time as a fine example of rare Song dynasty ceramics. In modern times, with the advancements in scientific research on ancient ceramics, scholars have unearthed certain discrepancies between historical records, archaeological discoveries, and surviving Ge-ware artifacts. Owing to different interpretations of the available data, for many years researchers were unable to reach a consensus on various aspects of Ge ware, including its conceptual basis, periods of production, kiln site locations, production methods, and its relationship to other wares.
Despite these differences of opinion, the Chinese Ceramic Society gave separate listings for 'Ge ware and Di ware', 'Ge-ware and Longquan-ware black-body celadon' and 'Heirloom Ge ware' in their book Zhongguo taoci shi (A History of Chinese Ceramics), published in 1982. Today, 44 years later, the academic community generally considers Heirloom Ge-ware as a category of inherited ceramics characterized by a dark-colored body, a thick grey-celadon or beige glaze, a smooth and lustrous surface, and a network of crackled patterns of varying sizes and depths. Researchers also widely consider Heirloom Ge-ware ceramics to exhibit the distinctive characteristics of Song dynasty ceramics in terms of shape, body-glaze composition, decoration, and firing techniques. In particular, its artistic style fully embodies the refined and minimalist aesthetics of Song-era porcelain.
The high regard in which such pieces were held by the great Qing dynasty imperial collector, the Qianlong Emperor, is demonstrated by the fact that Ge ware dishes appear in several informal portraits of the Emperor. One such portrait is the famous painting entitled 'One or Two?', of which there are three versions in the Palace Museum, Beijing. The Qianlong Emperor is shown seated on a daybed in front of a screen on which is hung a portrait of himself, and surrounded by precious objects from his famous collection of antiques. One of these is a small crackled dish which appears to be Ge ware. The admiration of the Qianlong Emperor for Ge wares can also be seen in the inscriptions that he applied to pieces in his collection, see for example a poem composed by the Emperor in 1785, which he had incised into the rim of a Ge vase now in the British Museum: “Despite the pattern of hundreds of intermingling crackle lines, its texture is fine and smooth to the touch. This is the work of the talented Elder Brother. One discovers that the value of these undecorated wares is the same as that of unpolished gems. How could one compare this and the more elaborate products of Xuan(de) and Cheng(hua)? Each has its own individual charm.” See the Illustrated Catalogue of Ru, Guan, Jun, Guangdong and Yixing Wares in the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, London, 1999, no. 94.
Examination of the Qianlong inscriptions further highlights the subject on which there has been considerable debate among scholars and connoisseurs – the difficulty of determining whether a particular piece should be described as Guan or Ge ware. Traditionally it is said that Ge ware acquired its name from the Chinese term gege (the Elder Brother referenced in Qianlong’s poem above), since it was believed to have been made by the elder of the two Zhang brothers. Distinguishing between Ge and Guan ware is not greatly aided by the historical texts, which merely say that they looked similar to one another. A symposium held by the Shanghai Museum in October 1992 brought together all the leading Song ceramic scholars from China and abroad to discuss Ge ware and the ways to distinguish it from Guan ware.
However, the debate regarding the exact period of production and kiln site still rages. In light of the excavations carried out at the Xiuneisi kiln at Laohudong, some Chinese archaeologists now suggest that, like Guan ware, these beautiful and refined Ge wares may have been made at kilns just outside the walls of the Southern Song palace at Hangzhou, while others suggest that they may have been made at kilns nearer to the center of Longquan production. While no unanimity of opinion has ever been reached, it is now generally thought that those wares with a double jinsi tiexian crackle, such as the present lot, should be designated 'Ge' or 'Geyao'. See Rosemary Scott, Guan or Ge Ware?, Oriental Art, Summer 1993, pp. 12-23.
Literature comparison:
Compare two closely related Geyao brush washers in the shape of a mallow flower, dated Song dynasty, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Porcelain of the Song Dynasty, vol. 2, 2022, p. 66 and 68, nos. 59 and 61. Compare a related Guan ware brush washer, China, Southern Song to Yuan dynasty, 1127-1300, 12.2 cm diameter, in the British Museum, registration number PDF,A.53. Compare a related Guan ware brush washer, China, Southern Song dynasty, 1127-1279, 9.9 cm diameter, in the British Museum, registration number PDF.30.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Sotheby’s Hong Kong, 28 November 2018, lot 312
Price: HKD 3,720,000 or approx. EUR 480,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Geyao mallow-shaped brush washer, Ming dynasty or earlier
Expert remark: Compare the closely related form and glaze. Note the similar size (10.2 cm). Also note the identical dating.
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