Ox-BLood Red Mallet-shaped Vase

Artist Chinese , Jingdezhen, in Jiangxi province

DateKangxi period (1662–1722) of the Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

Mediumporcelain with a lime-alkali glaze tinted with copper

Dimensions45.7 cm (18 in.)

ClassificationsCeramics

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Terms

Object number1916.6

DescriptionClub shaped vase. Porcelain. A very beautiful specimen of the important sang-de-boeuf variety being especially brilliant in coloring. 7/18/51 J. Plumer: Not particularly good but worth keeping. Poorest of the three sang-de-boeuf examples in the WAM collection. Broken and mended at bottom.; Ch'ien Lung period
Label TextDuring the Kangxi period (1662–1722), Jingdezhen potters succeeded in reviving a more fluid version of the opaque, even-toned jihong “sacrificial-red” glaze, a copper glaze that had first been used for imperial ceremonial wares for the Altar of the Sun during the Xuande period (1426–1435). This revival of jihong also led to the experimental development of a more glass-like and lustrous red glaze with suspended copper oxide particles. In reference to Lang Tingji (1663–1715), who supervised the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen from 1705 to 1712, the new glaze was called lanyaohong (Lang-ware red). In the West the glaze was thought to resemble and thereby came to be popularly called “ox-blood,” or sang de boeuf. This vase (page 102) exemplifies an early variation of the new copper-red glaze. The impression is one of looking through a transparent, crazed surface, strewn with fine bubbles, to a warm red color where the glaze is thicker, and to a pale green tint, where the glaze has flowed thin at the lip and towards the foot. When applied more thickly and evenly, and fired at higher temperatures, this new glaze gained a darker red and more vitreous surface (cf. 1905.1).ProvenanceDuveen Brothers, New York

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