Size: 12.6 cm.(D)
The waterpot is well potted with rounded sides rising to a short flared rim, incised with three archaistic dragon roundels on the body, and covered in a liver-red glaze of an uneven greyish red tone, suffused with strawberry mottling, the interior and countersunk base glazed in white, Kangxi six-character mark in underglaze blue.
PROVENANCE:
Collection of Sidney T. Cook (1910-1964), and thence by descent
Water pots like this are known as ‘taibai zun’ after the Tang dynasty poet Li Taibai, who is often depicted leaning against a large wine jar of similar form. The charming blush-like glaze, extremely hard to achieve due to the unpredictable nature of the copper pigment, can only be found on the eight prescribed vessels made for the scholar's table, which have thus become one of the most iconic groups of porcelain created under the Kangxi Emperor.
Classic examples of this glaze and form can be seen : 1, in the Sir Percival David collection in the British Museum, London, published in 《Illustrated Catalogue of Ming and Qing Wares》, London, 1989, pl. 580, and also illustrated on the front cover. 2, in the Palace Museum, Beijing, published in 《Kangxi. Yongzheng. Qianlong. Qing Porcelain from the Palace Museum Collection》, Hong Kong, 1989, p. 142, pl. 125. 3, in the Shanghai Museum, illustrated in 《Kangxi Porcelain Wares from the Shanghai Museum Collection》, Hong Kong, 1998, pl. 206; 4, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, included in Suzanne G. Valenstein, 《A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics》, New York, 1989, p. 237.