Chinese Blue & White Porcelain Vase, C. 1680

Details

Description

Chinese provincial porcelain trumpet form vase on a flaring foot. This diminutively scaled vase is decorated fully in the round … Read more Chinese provincial porcelain trumpet form vase on a flaring foot. This diminutively scaled vase is decorated fully in the round in cobalt underglaze blue with blooming peony bough and a magpie fluttering on a branch. This vignette bears auspicious symbols for beauty, wealth and joy. The peony is the queen of all flowers in China and it symbolizes wealth and beauty. The magpie is a harbinger of happiness, thus its name "bird of happiness."

There is a tiny ding on the flared mouth rim and also on the foot ring. The dark spots of various sizes represent ashes that landed on the glaze in the firing process. They support the age of the vase when all porcelain objects were stacked high and fired in a wood kiln.

On the underside is a double cobalt ring customarily seen during the Transitional Period.

China, Transitional Period, c. 1680. See less